


Close Contact

by DragonlordRynn



Category: Deus Ex (Video Games), Outlast (Video Games)
Genre: Ben Saxon gets a short cameo, Does it count as 'Major Character Death', Gen, If it are canon deaths?, It is Outlast, Screw the Pacifist Achievment, Variants - Freeform, You can figure out what the Mature Rating is there for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:28:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 35,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27298657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonlordRynn/pseuds/DragonlordRynn
Summary: It was supposed to be an easy job. Samizdat asked him to check out this one asylum. If there is one thing he should never trust, it's the simple word 'easy'. Because it's never easy.
Relationships: Lisa Park/Waylon Park
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16





	1. Close Contact

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something different this time. I wanted to write something with Outlast, however, just to murder Eddie Gluskin in the worst way possible (because, let's face it- that guy isn't just sick in the head, he's a monster).  
> Using my normal cast of Alex, Heller, Cross or Cole however, would have meant this whole story would have had like...300 words.  
> So I picked Adam Jensen from Deus Ex, more specifically, from Mankind Divided.
> 
> Enjoy the story.
> 
> EDIT: As of 8th December 2020, I split the story up into chapters for easier handling.

No way out. No way out. No way out.

Leg throbbing, sending jolts of pain up every agonizing step. Lungs burning.

Had to get away. Had to-

“There's my darling.”

His heart stopped and blood roared in his ears as he slowly turned to stare the Groom in the face. The man's expression was a wide, unhinged grin, his insane eyes driving shards of raw animal terror through his body. He stepped back, the Groom stepped to the front. “Shh. Don't be afraid, my darling.”

The wall exploded, the Groom swaying to the side from the force of the impact, attention off him when suddenly something big and black tackled into him and tore him off his feet. There were yells, shouts and swears, and suddenly the distinct screech of metal on metal, and the wet squelch of metal on flesh.

The voice died with a whisper of air, and the black form shifted, rising to impossible heights as a long black knife disappeared into its form.

The Groom was on the floor, eyes wide and unseeing, with blood oozing from his chest. Dead. Gone. _Safe_.

Black boots shifted, cutting him off from the Groom, and his eyes jumped up, heart racing inside his chest.

He was tall, taller than any of the others he'd seen, with black hair and black beard and black eyes and a black coat and hands made of cruel black metal. Like the Walrider turned solid.

Then his stance shifted, and black lenses disappeared into his head and suddenly there were worried _human_ eyes looking at him. The first he's seen ever since coming here.

“Mr Park? My name's Adam Jensen, I'm with Interpol. I'm here to get you out.”

* * *

Adam stared at the television with a frown. He had no desire to watch news or sports.

Cereals and whiskey? Was still a bit early for that.

He glanced at his books. Nah, not them either.

The clocks? Made him feel a bit sick to the stomach. He knowingly decided to go to Palisade, after all, and that nearly cost Nomad Stánek's daughter's life. He was lucky Alex owed him and went after her, but she didn't have the delicate touch he had and in the end, just ripped out the power of the whole building and prevented the woman and her followers from collective suicide. Not exactly tactful, but it got the job done.

Just, he hadn't been able to look at Stánek's eyes again, and the clocks reminded him of the man who very nearly had lost his only child.

Maybe go for a walk instead? Just where to? There weren't many places around here where a heavily-armed Aug like himself could go without the police breathing down his neck. He briefly toyed with the idea of going back to the office to just check up on how things were progressing, maybe do some work, but then he remembered how Miller had forced him to take a vacation nearly at gunpoint, and told him he'd have Aria on stand-by to shoot him should he show his face anywhere near their HQ during this time.

Adam was pretty sure the last threat was a joke, but then again, he'd rather not risk it. Aria was a damn good shot, and would fire at him because she knew she wouldn't be able to kill him on accident.

...What else could he do? Alex hadn't given any new information when he called her on day two, instead told him to stop thinking so much and start enjoying his vacation. She also offered to bring him some of her old games, just so he could do something. It was day five now and he wished he'd taken her up on her offer, because he was going stir crazy.

Walk. Yeah, a walk sounded nice. Maybe buy one of those croissants with nougat. Maybe commit some felonies. He'd decide later.

Just, as he stepped out of his apartment, his infolink chirped at him. He recognized the avatar they used, and wondered briefly what trouble might be enough for K to contact him again. It was usually the other way round, with him normally dropping in on Samizdat to get them a few information, or coming to visit little k in her apartment next to Miller's for some homemade cooking.

Curious, he accepted the call. “K?”

“ _Thanks for accepting my call, I hope you're not too busy Mr I'm-not-a-secret-agent-no-matter-what-it-looks-like.”_

Adam's lips quirked up a little at that nickname. After all this time, he still didn't know their real names. Neither did they, for that matter. “Didn't have anything better to do.”

“ _No? Figured you would always be busy with something.”_

“Was forced to take a vacation, and none of my other acquaintances needs me to break into some place or steal secrets.” He grinned to himself for a moment, then he sighed once. “It's been five days now and I'm ready to go up a wall.”

“ _And here I thought K was a workaholic.”_ little k threw in with mirth in her voice. K was likely using speaker, but he was grumbling a bit under his breath. _“You're lucky. Swing by at our office, there's somebody you might want to meet.”_

Adam considered it. Shrugged. “Be there in five.”

“ _I'll put on coffee.”_

Adam left the apartment complex and wandered towards the old tourist office where he once found Eliza. It had been his idea to relocate Samizdat there from the sewers when Milena complained about the constant dampness and the smell. It was smaller than the sewer hideout, yes, but at least it was better hidden. And Police Drones would be incapable of maneuvering in the low rooms anyways.

“Mr Super Secret Agent Man!” Adam just tilted his head into Milena's direction as the young woman bounced towards him with a wide grin. K followed after her. “Man! You're not gonna believe it! She's A plus here! All those passports she makes? Gets my people everywhere, man!”

“Mhm. I see.” He glanced at Milena. “You promised only to help friends in need.”

“Well”, she shrugged. “They are my friends, and they are in need. So, no harm done, right?”

Adam just shook his head, though couldn't hide the smile anymore as he turned his attention to K. “Okay, so why did you call me over?”

“We got a guest”, little k commented as she walked over to them and handed each of them a cup of coffee. That in itself wasn't unusual, Samizdat had a lot of visitors over the past years. All people they vetted personally first, of course.

“...and?” Adam couldn't really understand why they called him in on this one.

“And this could just be _the_ story of the century, man!” K waved his arms excitedly, spilling coffee everywhere. little k just grumbled under her breath about making him clean that up in their nice dry and not-smelly hideout.

Adam furrowed his brows, turning to check the area. So far, there were only Bones, Milena, K and little k present- and a third man who'd been behind the support beams before. Leather jacket, white shirt, jeans, sneakers, disheveled dark hair that stood in wild angles away from his head, ocular prostheses. He seemed familiar somehow, but his memories had suffered somewhat when the Tyrants put him through a wall.

He sighed. “Okay, I give up. Who's he, and why did you call me over?”

The man stepped towards him with an awkward grin. “I'm Miles Upshur”, he said simply. “I'm a journalist.”

Adam frowned. He knew that name. “Picus?”

“Nah, man. Freelance.” He grimaced. “I _used_ to work for Picus- before I witnessed some stuff in Australia and they twisted my findings around. Long story short, I posted the real story online, Picus flipped their shit, denied everything, and fired me. Now I'm freelance.”

Adam furrowed his brows even more. “You came here to have Samizdat help you with a story?” He glanced at K. “And you thought you'd call me and look whether I'm willing to break into some place and see what I can find?”

K blinked. “You got mind reading augs packed in there somewhere? It's exactly that!”

Adam sighed. “It was painfully obvious.”

“It's not that easy”, Upshur pointed out. “It's...I'm not really sure what it is.”

“Why don't you start at the beginning?”

“There isn't much to tell”, Upshur went to one of the computers and opened what looked like an e-mail. Adam read it with furrowed brows. It mentioned medical malpractice in a mental asylum, was apparently sent by an employee.

“Not much to go by on.”

“Yeah, it's just”, Upshur shook his head with a frustrated sound. “I dug into it soon as I read it. Murkoff- you know Murkoff, right?”

“Big pharma company. Big on genetics too.” He swallowed briefly the bile threatening to rise in his throat. Was way too similar to VersaLife. “Something's not right, no?”

“Exactly”, Upshur ran his hand through his hair. “For some reasons, Murkoff's really tight-lipped about their rehabilitation. The few people I managed to track down, released criminals, or otherwise insane people, just _vanished_. All trails lead to nowhere, so I figured they just never left the asylum in the first place.”

Adam huffed out. “So you discovered something that could potentially hint towards apparent medical malpractice. And?” His tone left no room for arguments- everybody in this place knew that mistreatment of patients wasn't anything new. Hell, he'd been at the receiving end of that too, back in Alaska. Those camps were supposed to help people come to terms with the Incident, and ended up being only little better than Riker's.

People just didn't care if it happened to other people they didn't want to know about. Like insane, or Augs.

Upshur nodded darkly. “Yeah, I get where you're coming from. I thought the same.”

“Something changed?”

“Exactly. Not too long after I received this E-mail, I was contacted by one Simon Peacock.”

K gasped. “Wait, wait, wait. Simon Peacock? As in 'Ex-Murkoff-Employee-who-disappeared-under-strange-circumstances' Simon Peacock?”

“Exactly”

Adam blinked. “What kind of strange circumstances?”

K shrugged. “Not sure exactly. But rumor has it, he's been in the upper echelons and simply went AWOL. That time, lots of shit went down and Murkoff suddenly sent out swarms of legal attorneys and a lot of people changed their minds about some things they worked on. They lost lots of money back then, so I guess whatever Peacock knew, Murkoff didn't want others to know.”

“My thoughts exactly”, Upshur agreed. “Now, Peacock contacted me and told me the employee who sent me the e-mail was one Waylon Park. He's an IT specialist.”

“Maybe he's there to keep the office systems running?” little k suggested.

Upshur shook his head. “Park's been employed by Steiner-Bisley before. Programmed the robots. Now tell me, what does a _mental asylum_ need a _robot expert_ for?”

_Water pressure normal. Who am I? I feel cold. Where am I? Let me go. Core temperature stable. Stop the signal._

Adam grimaced and shook his head in an attempt to dislodge memories. “Where?”

Upshur frowned at him. “Mount Massive Asylum, Colorado...you okay?”

“Not really. But what you said, it reminded me of something. Something bad.” He grimaced. “I have a pilot who can get me there. Now I know I need to check things out in that asylum.”

K blinked. “That was fast, man. You mind telling me why you changed your mind so quick?”

“I've seen something that made this just seem familiar. Something that had to do with computer technology and captives. I don't like where this seems to be going and I hope I'm wrong about that one.” He turned to Upshur. “Is there more I should know?”

Miles frowned. “Yeah, uh, a testimony is worth shit without some real evidence, so I suggest taking pictures, getting data off their system, getting hard files, that sort of thing. You really want to go to Colorado on a _whim_?”

“Worked with less”, Adam admitted. “What kind of evidence are we talking about?”

“Pictures. Video material”, Upshur luckily didn't press the point any further. “Used a camcorder until shrapnel blew out my eyes. Used my ocular prostheses and Infolink since then, along with a Blackbox.”

“Blackbox?”

“It's a type of mental augmentation. Allows you to save and store anything you've seen and heard. You just need to press the figurative button, and you're good to go.”

Adam inclined his head for a moment, before he decided. The idea was good, as hard evidence was the best choice “I'll go see my mechanic whether he can put something temporary together. You mind accompanying me, so he can see what a Blackbox is supposed to look like?”

* * *

“You're fucking insane!” Alex had yelled at him when he called her and explained the situation to her. “Why do you have to hop around half the world on a _whim_? Can't you just play games like any sane person?”

“Like that '99 game with the pyramids and little cities?” Adam had replied smugly.

“Hey, you leave my favorite city builder out of this, you hear me?!”

She still gave in, though, and was now in the cockpit of her VTOL as they shot across the sky. “It's going to be pitch black night when you get there”, she reminded him.

“Perfect. Makes sneaking in easier.”

“ _Adam”_

He blinked at the voice and avatar at the upper left corner of his vision. He glanced to the front, and switched to subvocalize. “Eliza?”

“ _I heard you were on your way to Mount Massive Asylum, Colorado. Correct?”_

“I am.” He didn't ask how she knew. He was aware she watched him. Didn't stalk him, however, but made sure he wouldn't be in over his head.

“ _I want you to be careful, Adam”_ , she told him with something like worry in her tone.

“Careful?”

“ _Mount Massive- there is something wrong with it.”_

He cocked his head. “How?”

“ _It is cut off from the outside”_ , she remarked. _“Only personnel is allowed on site, visitors are not allowed outside of the Administration office. But- their network is...encrypted.”_

“It is? You checked?”

“ _I tried. Any attempts at getting into it were thwarted. All messages going in an out are closely scrutinized. Only small amounts of data are allowed to pass through and will be heavily encrypted too. If I were to sneak in, the system would pull me apart. I don't know whether I can put myself together then.”_ She fell silent for a moment. _“The whole area is also shielded against radio communication. Once you're in, you won't be able to call for help.”_

Concerning. Adam tilted his head. “Wonder if there is a EMP generator, or something.”

“ _Possibly. Your systems shouldn't be affected, asides from your Infolink and potentially Radar. If you get in, can you try to figure out how to stop it?”_

“I can try.” He leaned back. “Tell me, what do you know about Murkoff? And Mount Massive?”

“ _Murkoff. Founded with the purpose of charity. It is funded to research mental diseases and find cures.”_ Eliza was silent again. _“That is what they claim. However, things do not add up. For once, Murkoff has higher expenses than profit. Still, they are known for paying their employes large wages.”_

“So they have a more profitable business at the back. Is this money laundering?”

“ _Perhaps.”_

“What else is there?”

“ _Most former employes simply...cease to exist once their employment ends. They are said to have moved abroad, or have died in accidents. Most current employes are treated with benefits, be it medical treatment, or dealing with lawsuits.”_

Adam frowned. “Somebody is silencing potential witnesses. Either literally, or by buying their loyalty.”

“ _Possibly.”_ Eliza's avatar flickered slightly. _“It also appears that Murkoff once had dealings with Belltower, regarding the training of their own security personnel.”_

“Hold it. Why would a pharmaceutical company need military-trainer security personnel?”

“ _I don't know. Murkoff takes great care its servers are hacking resistant. I think somebody has to physically access their network.”_

Adam grinned. “Think I know what to do once I'm finished here. Think ShadowChild would help?”

“ _Positive. She and her Rippers will just wait for a chance.”_

“Any other connections to the Illuminati other than Belltower?”

“ _Possible. Murkoff had several dealings with Page Industries, Tai Yong Medical, and Hugh Darrow. However, I can not tell what those dealings were about.”_

He made a mental note to find out. “What about Mount Massive?”

“ _Built in 1870 as a direct mirror image of the Richard Olmsted Complex in Buffalo, New York. Established as lunatic asylum which sought to 'treat' undesired mental complexes, like epilepsy, homosexuality, autism, and others. Likely high death rate from bad hygiene and repeated abusing. Was repeatedly closed down and re-opened. Last established as Mount Massive Asylum in 1967, but was closed down in 1971, following the murder of three doctors by one inmate. Re-established in 2009 by Murkoff, as asylum catering to criminally insane and civilian mentally disabled inmates.”_

“Layout?”

“ _The Administration Block has two side wings- the male ward and the female ward. The Prison Complex for the criminally insane attaches to the female ward and the hospital wing. Several courtyards, mostly fenced off from another. A gym hall with added rooms. A chapel. A sewage system below the complex.”_

“Inmates?”

“ _Uncertain. There is no data available. As is staff amount. Only certain point is that there are no females present, neither inmates or staff.”_

“Why?”

“ _Uncertain, but women had been relocated to other institutes.”_

Adam hummed. “Okay. Anything else?”

“ _Yes. Local authorities claim that the forest agency is currently spraying toxins against box elder bugs, and as such, there are going to be helicopters circling the area.”_

Adam blinked. “Box elder bugs? Since when are they combated?” Europe had the fire bug- a very similar insect, and, like box elder bugs, they were more or less harmless, if annoying.

“ _Exactly”_ Eliza sounded like she was frowning. _“And spray actions are done in the spring, before the insects start to reproduce, not during autumn when most of them are hidden for hibernation. Neither would this work be done with a rainstorm approaching.”_

“And they won't spray during the _night_.”

“ _Something is being covered up. Adam- please be careful.”_

“I always am.”

“ _Thank you. I will keep an eye out for when the shielding drops.”_

“See you around.” He turned his attention to the front. “Alex? How far?”

“We should be approaching the site by now”, she gave back. “I could land in the courtyard, or a little outside in the woods?”

“No. Get to a secure location. Place's surrounded by helicopters, and shielded. No communication. Don't know how it'll affect the systems. Worst case scenario, we crash and lose the plane.”

Alex grunted. “Of course. Of _course_! How do you want to do it, then?”

“I'll jump. Land with the Icarus and sneak in.”

“Problem is, you need help and you can't call for any. You'll be on your own, man.”

“I am aware.” He smirked a bit. “It's not like it's new or anything.”

“You die, and I'll have my aunt summon you back so I can yell at you.”

“Your aunt?”

“Not really aunt, but she's like fifteen years older than me so I called her auntie. She lives near New Orleans and knows her voodoo.” Alex wagged her finger at him. “So trust me, she knows how to bring dead people back just to yell at them.”

“I keep that in mind”, he acknowledged as he walked to the back of the VTOL. Alex pushed the button for the loading ramp. It slid open and icy wind crashed into Adam, rustling his hair and beard and coat. “Okay man, go!” He stepped to the front and let gravity take a hold on him. Far below him, he could see the complex, shining in the dark.

A tense feeling crawled up his back as he fell, and it was like falling into Hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's meet some familiar faces. I also decided to add some augmentation to the list of possible things, to remove the Camcorder element and allow Adam a wider range of abilities.
> 
> Pointed out the logical flaw in Murkoff's thin-ass lie about the helicopters, too.  
> Also, the game Alex mentioned? It's called Pharaoh, and it is pretty similar to SimCity. I still play it, because unlike SimCity, it's actually easy, and very nice done.


	2. Exile

Icarus caught him easily in a shimmer of gold. Other than the scream of the aug, nothing disturbed the eerie silence that surrounded Mount Massive, and it was only nine in the evening. Eliza was right about two points- his Infolink and Radar were dead, rendering him less perceptive towards his environment than he was used to.  _Almost human again_ , he thought with a wry grimace. He still had a few more tricks up his sleeve, however. His mapping still worked, so he could create a floor plan just by walking around, even without having a layout ready. More even, Smart Vision was still fully functional, so he quickly glanced around with it to check the attendant's hut- only to find it empty. No warden.

No animals nearby.

And that in itself was a warning sign. Because so high up in the mountains, shouldn't there be animals? Bats, owls, mammals, insects on their last few weeks before winter began? But everything was silent, like they avoided this place.

Could likely sense the madness inside.

Adam grimaced and shook his head as he activated the Blackbox inside his skull, and watched the small record symbol pop up at the edge of his vision.  _You're too dramatic_ , he thought to himself, _It's just a place treating people that don't know what they are doing_ . 

He pitied them, but didn't make the mistake to forget that they could very well be dangerous. This place was a  _criminal_ asylum, after all.

As he walked up to the towering front entrance, he paused with furrowed brows. Military vans were parked on the lawn. They looked so out of place near a mental asylum, that he actually had to do a double-take to make sure they were actually real.

What were military vans doing here? He approached one, eyes narrowing on the name tag.

_Murkoff Hardline Security_ . M.H.S? But this meant that Murkoff's security wasn't just  _security_ \- it were  _PMCs_ . Military. Not cops-for-hire. What charitable company had  _military_ for security?

Tai Yong had. VersaLife had. Even the Blades in Prague had.

His stomach twisted with the uneasy feeling of danger.

He had to find Park, and he had to find evidence that people were being abused here- fast. He stopped himself however as he noticed a figure duck away at the upper left window of the building's front. So there were people present- but did that mean his cover was already blown? Or couldn't they see him in the darkness down here? He set his jaw and walked up to the main entrance, carefully rattling the doors.

Locked, as were the other doors nearby, but he never liked the frontal approach anyways, nor did he like breaking doors open. Not when there were other ways of dealing with blocked ways. An iron gate to the left side was damaged, and easy to crouch through to the other side.

There was scaffolding against the far left wing of the building. He approached it, used the Klipspringer to get up to the second story, where a window was open.

The moment Adam hauled himself through the opening, he realized that things were  _off_ . Cabinets, bookcases and seats had been toppled over, and there were books and strange stains on the floor.   
Then the light bulb fizzled and went dark. He arched one eyebrow and checked the area with Smart Vision again. Nobody nearby, so he exited the now dark room and went into the still lit hallway beyond. Both sides had been blocked off with furniture.

His eyebrows came down and his fists clenched slightly. Barricades were a sign of  _fear_ . As was the smell that sat at the edge of his senses. Sickly sweet, somehow familiar, but too diluted to really recognize it. 

He checked the area again with Smart Vision, then entered a television room. The TV suddenly came to life, but nobody was nearby. Likely an energy surge, and so far, he was alone. Adam went back to the hallway through a second door, and easily squeezed through a narrow gap in the barricade. A small office on the left didn't bring anything new, but he made short work of the computer there and checked through the data. Nothing valuable, as far as he could see, but he left it running so more skilled hackers would get into the system once he had the shielding down. In the office next to it, he found a patient's file.

Reading it would betray the patient/doctor confidentiality, but also maybe offer some insight?

The name of the patient was Billy, and the whole entry spoke of a 'Project Walrider' _._ Adam paused, eyes narrowing. One of the TF29 agents was German, and once told him about a bunch of monsters. Hadn't been really thinking straight back then, not with the three bottles of whiskey and beer ingested. Walrider was an old German name for a creature generally called 'Alp'- a being associated with sleep paralysis and vivid nightmares and later evolved into 'Elf'.

Combined with the remarks about lucid dreaming, it seemed to hint at a dream therapy? Not an unusual attempt at an Asylum, but it still made his back crawl. The 'Morphogenic Engine', and the remark 'Project' weren't things usually associated with curing attempts. More with...technological or military projects.

Adam shoved the file into a small bag attached to his back under his coat, and left the room again. This time, he noticed the stains on the walls.

It wasn't paint.

It was  _blood_ . Smeared against the surfaces around, bloody foot-and hand prints. The door to the bathroom nearby was closed- and Smart Vision told him there was a person hiding there. Probably scared by whatever had happened. He wasn't going to force them out, so he headed right instead, into a small lunch room.

The table was broken, stained with blood. The air vent cover above hung askew, and more blood was splattered against the ceiling. On the counter behind him was a plate with a piece of meat on it.

Meat that looked suspiciously like a piece of an intestine. And since there were no large animals around, it was likely  _human_ . 

Adam shivered briefly, checked the area with Smart Vision again, and lunged upwards to pull himself into the air vent.

“No! Not you again!” A voice shrieked, and he paused to see a man dash out of the bathroom, stare at the empty lunch room, and quickly scurry back.  
It wasn't an employee, it was a patient. Not a threat, especially now since he was hiding again. Adam let him be and easily made his way through the vent to reach the other side, where a gallery was cut off with glass from the atrium beneath. He dropped down and glanced around. The door to the left was locked, and to the right was more debris. But next to it was also a door labeled 'library'. Without a floor plan, Adam simply decided to walk through it and hopefully get to the other side of the blockage without having to punch it apart.

The moment he opened the door, his breathing stopped abruptly.

The sweet, underlying scent he'd been noticing since setting foot in the asylum hit him with full force. Sticky metallic, mixed with the smell of urine and feces.

For a moment, he was back in Panchaea. Back amidst all the corpses and insane workers.

But he wasn't in Panchaea, he was in Mount Massive Asylum, and still, it was way worse here.

His enhanced eyes automatically switched to night vision to allow him to see better, allow him to see the body hanging in front of him from the ceiling lamp, leaking blood and urine.

The head was gone.

As was the head of the next body.

Adam fell silent, listening for a moment for any movement, but asides from the low dripping sounds of liquids and the constant buzzing of flies, it was eerily silent. He set his jaw and moved deeper, banishing all memories of Panchaea and the Incident as he moved closer to check the body. Lab uniform, one of the mental doctors. Torn apart by their own patients. The question was  _why_ . Insane people usually didn't go that mad to tear men apart and hang them like game. Especially not insane people that were surrounded by doctors supposed to make them better.

Unless Murkoff actually did something to make it  _worse_ . But what would they gain from angry mad inmates?

He passed the bookshelves, where the smell of blood was strongest.

There was a pile of bodies in doctor's scrubs and army fatigues in the corner near the window, with one impaled on an iron bar and propped up like a scarecrow.

Inside the shelves on either sides- the missing heads. Lined up neatly.

This wasn't just a little trouble. This was...what was it? A riot? Mad inmates didn't usually murder that wantonly. Mad inmates would maybe cut a body to pieces, but not line up the heads. Neither would they be able to murder that many armed forces, madness or not.

Adam furrowed his brows and approached the heads, picking up the closest one.

The flesh at the bottom of the neck wasn't cut- it was  _torn_ . As was the next. And the one after that. And the one after that.

But what in the world was strong enough to tear somebody's head off without leaving any other marks asides from...He squinted at a mashed pair of eye glasses on one of the heads, noticing the fingerprints on it.

Somebody had  _pulled_ a grown man's head right off his body with his bare hands. He always thought only augs had any right to do so, but augs also didn't leave fingerprints.

His brows furrowed. “Shit”

There was a gasp, and Adam whirled, blades slipping out of his wrists-

The body in the middle wasn't a body. Not yet.

The soldier gasped and weakly flailed his limbs, and Adam dashed towards him out of instinct, hypo stim and pain killer already in his hands, only to drop uselessly back into his pockets.

The man was practically dead- the iron rod jammed through his body had entered through his rectum and left near his collar bones. His intestines and stomach were torn, the lungs likely damaged, the liver obliterated. His internal organs were probably swimming in blood at this point.

Adam remembered Radford and Keitner as he approached the coughing figure. The soldier gasped several times, eyes squinting in the darkness. “Who--you?”

“I'm from Interpol”, Adam replied, grabbing the man's hand to squeeze it. “I came to look for a man. An IT expert.”

The soldier coughed and inhaled painfully. “Won't find him- dead already.”

“What happened?”

“They killed us--they got out-- the Variants.” He inhaled another time. “Can't fight them. Have to run. To hide- can unlock the- main door. From Security.” He grit his teeth and tried to pull himself free, but didn't succeed. “Get the fuck out of here- Inter--pol”, he wheezed before falling silent with one last rattle of breath. The hand clutching Adam's went limp.

He grit his teeth and stepped back. “Not before I found Park.”

There wasn't anything he could do here anymore, not even look after the bodies. Now he knew he had to hurry, had to get to the IT engineer and get him out of here.

The locked front door in itself was no problem, mainly because right at the moment, it also kept the insane  _in_ . He was going to leave it that way, but the Security Controls were a good idea- he hoped he could get the floor plans from there, and override the shielding. The sooner he got that done, the sooner he could focus on finding Park.

If he was still alive, that is, but seeing as the other staff members had been slaughtered already, chances were slim to non-existent to find the IT expert.

Still, he had to try.

Adam wandered out of the library and back to the gallery. He didn't notice anybody nearby as he looked for a way down into the main hall. He could probably destroy one of those glass plates, but he really didn't want to attract too much attention without his radar working. When he spotted another barrier with a narrow gap, he moved towards it to squeeze through-

He should have paid attention to the surroundings, because the very next second wood splintered and a giant hand seized his shoulder. “Little Pig!”

Adam was physically yanked back and spun around to be crashed against a wall, all before he even realized what was going on. A second giant hand smashed into his face, and the fingers closed at the back of his head to begin to pull roughly.  _Yeah, no._

He snarled and threw his legs to the front, catching whoever trapped him in the middle of the stomach with a fierce kick, to force him to loosen his hold. Then his blades shot out of his wrists and he jabbed them into the arm of his captor, who let go of him with a pained howl.

The second Adam could see again, his hand snapped back and the muzzle of the P.E.P.S. gun erupted with a deafening shriek. The giant reeled back, but managed to keep his position and angrily roared at him. Adam scrunched up his nose and fired the cannon a second time, succeeding only in making the guy stumble another step back.

He was too tough then, and the place too narrow to effectively fight. Adam's eyes slid to the side as he considered his options-then he dove to the right side to leap straight through the plate glass and hit the floor below amidst a shower of shards.

The giant snarled behind him, and he whirled in place, aiming his P.E.P.S. gun at him. The inmate froze, actually stopping himself from leaping right after him. They remained that way for a while as both seized the other up. The guy was large, almost as tall as Marchenko, but with way more mass. Dressed in only a pair of pants, with chains wrapped around wrists and ankles. Something about his face was just wrong, and it took Adam a moment to realize that it lacked lips, or a nose, and the eyes were milky white.

But, if that was an inmate- what the Hell had they been doing here then? Most likely  _not_ trying to cure them.

The man was the first to break the gaze as he turned and walked away, growling “I'll get you, pig!” Adam figured he'd better not stay too long in the open then. That guy was tough, and any confrontation would likely delay him in his mission. He didn't have much desire to waste time trying to take him down. Neither did he have much desire fighting the entire asylum, because obviously the soldier's words were to warn him of the inmates.

At the moment, he figured he was lucky he has a steel spine, and artificial muscles, seeing as it was likely the big guy who attacked and beheaded the men upstairs (his neck was a little sore). However, how did that man accomplish this? Adam was heavily augmented, and even he would never attack such a large group without any cover or plan of attack- the inmate was  _not_ augmented in any way and likely didn't form a plan, and still had enough strength and durability to survive being shot at  _and_ rip off grown men's heads almost frightfully easy.

If this was only one inmate, then something was still very wrong with this place.

There was the rustle of cloth, his free hand clenched and the blade shot out again as he spun around to face whoever snuck up on him. Eyes widened in surprise at the sight of a priest-

No. Not a priest. Or, at least, not an official one. The robe the old man was wearing looked a lot like it were inmate's clothes sewn together, with restraining belts forming a large cross over the man's chest. He was eying Adam's arms in awe, lips twitching as the he pulled the blade back and reshaped his other arm back into a proper limb.

“Who are you?” The priest questioned. “Who are you to carry His signs?”

Adam furrowed his brows, wincing slightly when he heard a distant crash. “That is something best left to do in a secure location.”

“Nowhere is safe from these poor wretches. Only delaying the inevitable”, the old man replied. “They do not touch me, for I am protected by His grace. But I can not say the same about you, son. You are a stranger here, yet you appeared at the exact tipping point. Why, I wonder?”

Adam decided to give it a try. “I'm looking for somebody. He's supposed to be here and it is my job to get him out.” Behind the priest, he could see some more inmates peering at them timidly. “I can get you and the others out too. I have friends who can look after you.”

“He provides us with shelter until we are ready to join Him”, the priest replied. “And He provided us with you.” He beamed across his entire face. “Now I know who you are. An Apostle of His grace. A messenger of His will. You carry the marks of His work, yet you did not join the others in His Great Beyond. Because He needs you to carry on His message.”

“I don't think-”

“He works in mysterious ways”, the priest confirmed. “You will see the truth about His Glory. But you'll need to bring His life back to the place you are looking for.”

“...The energy is off?”

“I am afraid, yes. Two devices at the belly of the place, and you can speak to Him again.” He scurried back to the other inmates. “Now hurry, my son. It is His will to test you, and you need to stay alive to witness His grace.”

He scuttled off, taking his followers with him. Adam remained behind befuddled. “The Hell?” This wasn't what he expected. At all.

On the other hand, it just proved how fucked up everything was, because the insane inmates were looking after other insane inmates, and not one doctor around.

...The Security Room. He needed the floor plans, he needed employee files, and he needed any information on Waylon Park's whereabouts. Maybe he was lucky and would find the man alive. Maybe he would only find a mangled corpse, but at least he would  _know_ . Not even trying to look for the man would feel like shooting a child in the middle of a riot. Adam set his jaw and started walking, mindful of the area to avoid this big guy taking him by surprise again.

The administration desk was stained with blood, and the security guards were torn apart in front of it. Adam picked up a few files and quickly leafed through them, then put them into his bag with a frown. Orders to allow the M.H.S. units full access to all areas.

A bloody message scrawled across the wall behind the body.  _Proclaim the Gospel_ . Likely the work of that priest. He shook his head and continued moving, keenly aware he was moving  _away_ from the exit at his back.

Nobody could say he would leave behind anybody who could still be alive, even if it went against everything a normal person would have done. But if Park was still alive, then he was going to go look for him, and drag him out of this place. Plus, Adam didn't have any self-preservation instincts. He wasn't even sure he and self-preservation knew each other.

Despite the hurry he felt thrumming at the back of his head, he still checked the offices around. Looked for anything that could help him, like key cards, plans, documents. Found a file on the big guy, one Chris Walker, who mutilated himself under the effects of the  _Morphogenic Therapy_ , whatever that was.

Headed further to the left, walked along another hallway and passed a passive inmate sitting in a wheelchair. Asides from giving him a cursory glance, he didn't pay him much attention when he headed into another room, where a pair of inmates sat and watched the white static on the television, like it was the most interesting show ever. A third sat curled up on the couch, like he was hiding, or weeping, or napping.

Adam frowned briefly as he carefully approached one of the men- a form of rash covered most of his body, face and shaved head. Practically all the inmates had shaved heads, he realized. Standard processing, or just another way to make them less human? Only thing missing would be tattooed numbers then.

The rash in itself didn't looks so good either, and he remembered that the other inmates he's seen had similar disfigurement. Hadn't looked like self-mutilations like in Walker's case either, but rather...tumors? Cancer? Some form of allergic reaction? What about the surgical scars running along the limbs of the third man? Looked a lot like medical malpractice, if he was being honest.

The record symbol of his Blackbox was still active, he checked. Good.

Adam glanced back at the three men who were still focused on the white static on the television, and headed to another door at the back of the room. It was boarded up, but left enough space for him to crouch under. Beyond he discovered another office, with a dead guard.

A dead guard who had the key card to the security controls on him. Adam took it. Would save him time if he avoided hacking into it. Plus he was pretty sure he would be lacking wall panels to hack anyways- this place didn't seem to have seen any major electrical overhauls since it had been opened in 2009.

He turned and headed back towards the atrium, passing the three men again. But the guy in the wheelchair- the moment Adam passed by too close, he suddenly leapt to his feet and lunged at the agent, taking him by surprise. Only for a second, though, because the next his systems and training jumped into action and he swiped his arm to the side to break the man's wild swings and make him lose his balance. His hand snatched out the next moment, grabbing the guy at his throat to pull him close again and hold him in place while Adam smacked his own forehead into the other's face to knock him out in one hit.

The inmate dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes, and would likely remain there for the next time.

But...Adam paused and crouched down besides him, grabbing his chin to turn his head towards him, nearly jumping backwards in the process. The man wouldn't have been able to harm him anyways- he could see his bones clearly through his paper-thin skin, and his eyes were missing completely. He could see skin sewn shut across empty eye sockets, and mutilations along his upper lip and nose, revealing his gums and teeth even with a closed mouth.

He would bet anything that the man didn't look that way when he first arrived here.

Adam scowled to himself and headed towards the end of the hallway, where a locked door made of iron mesh cut him off from the atrium. Of course, he could go back through the office like he'd done before, but there was a pool of blood on the floor, and he wasn't keen on leaving tracks. So he threw a single punch at the door and broke the lock open easily, then stepped through. There was an elevator to the side, and a set of stairs leading up towards the library and chapel, a sign said. Another set of stairs led to the basement. The security controls were towards the right-hand side of the complex.

A bathroom along the left side of the hallway was stained with blood, with the cryptic remark  _Witness_ scrawled above a body. A storage room to the right was drenched in more blood, with two more corpses strewn about. The computer didn't offer any more insight either, so he left it alone and went back to the hallway, reaching the security office. The key card reader made a noise and the door swung open, but the priest was right. Power was gone. Computers were off, and now that he thought about it, the lighting was pretty bad. Emergency lighting, not the real deal, most likely.

Adam just sighed in annoyance. Okay, so get the power back up and running? The generator was probably in the basement. The priest did mention something of the sort-

He froze, ear perking up at the sound of heavy steps approach. His Smart Vision flickered to life and showed him a truly massive person heading towards the office.

Walker.

The agent snorted disbelievingly. Should he kill him? Incapacitate him? Guy was too large, and it would be a horrid waste of time. Plus, he'd seen the files. Walker likely suffered from PTSD, and was violently acting out on it. Dangerous, yes, but it would be easier to just pass him by. Adam checked his own batteries to see whether there was anything draining them. Nothing, full charge, so he stepped back and pulled the Glass Shields over his body the very second Walker broke down the door.

The giant paused, eyes narrowing as he muttered about a missing pig that must have been here before. Adam easily snuck past the large man and headed into another room that was completely dark. Walker wasn't going to see him here, and Adam could drop the cloak and wait until the big guy was gone.

Luck was on his side, because this room had a working computer that was- unlike all the others he'd seen- secured. It was possible the complex-intern network ran on a different energy system than the security devices, and this energy grid was still alive. He checked with Smart Vision again, noticed the giant lumber away, and hacked into the system.

More files on  _Project Walrider_ . Profit expectations with the remark that even despite heavy losses the revenue was going to be huge- which meant this wasn't an attempt to cure anybody. Whatever this Project was, whatever this Morphogenic Engine was, it fed off the suffering of people and Murkoff had no intentions to stop it.

Adam downloaded the files onto a data drive he'd been given from Janus via Alex, and put it into his most secure pocket.

Walker was gone by now, and the agent headed towards the basement, though he stopped at the lowest step and sighed through his teeth. Broken piping, water everywhere. Even his leg silencers wouldn't be able to help here. If somebody was down here trying to fuck him up, then Adam could not sneak past them.

Which meant he had to knock these guys out.

The door to the front was locked with a simple padlock. He could have crushed it, though a broken lock offered no protection. But the wall next to him was broken and allowed for passage. If people tried to attack them, he could bottleneck them here. He found a few old files hidden behind a crumbled fake wall and quickly leafed through them.

He blinked. “MKUltra?” He remembered what he learnt about the old CIA project regarding mind control and truth serums. Back between 1953 and 1970, with thousands of patients. Most of whom had no idea they were guinea pigs.

“Looks like Mount Massive was part of this”, he mused out loud as he put the files into his bag and headed towards the machine room to restart the generator. He heard another inmate yell threats from beyond a boarded-up entryway. Not a threat at the moment.

The generator was dead. Maintenance log dictated to activate two gas pumps to restart the engine. And, of course, the gas pumps couldn't be in the same room as the generator. Adam grumbled under his breath that these people here obviously build the asylum with the goal to drive all people into madness, not only the inmates.

When he located the first pump and switched it on, however, the angry inmate also discovered his position and charged him with a piece of wood, screaming.

Adam just rolled his eyes, easily ducked under the wide swing to grab the guy's arm and twist it into his back with a loud  _crack_ , then he just slammed his fist into his throat to knock him out. He threw the plank to the side, dragged the guy out of sight, and headed towards the second gas pump. 

Once it came to life, he needed to head towards the electric room and throw the lever. He sloshed through the ankle-deep water and wondered just why these people hadn't been able to build everything in one place and simply put everything in random places all throughout the basement.

The electric room wasn't more than just a storage room with an electrical cabinet at the end of a partly blocked hallway. Adam pulled the lever towards him, and the red lights switched to green. Then he made his way back to the generator and flipped the start button.

There was a low growl, and he turned slowly, eyes narrowing on the inmate he knocked out before. The man had recovered entirely too fast- something not even trained police men were able to do. He should know, he had taken down enough of them himself.

But this guy- asides from having gotten back to his feet by himself, he also didn't seem to have learnt of the encounter, because he lunged at Adam again. The agent just sighed, stepped to the side and grabbed the guy to smack him against the body of the generator with some more force this time, and left him crumbled to the floor.

Then he paused and knelt down, switching back to Smart Vision. Maybe this guy had a form of strength Aug? A Sentinel?

There wasn't anything that looked even remotely like an augmentation. Adam did find clusters of denser material that scanned like metal, but wasn't in any recognizable shape. Part of the experiments, maybe? Injection of metal particles?

Would maybe explain the tumors he'd seen, not the apparent enhanced strength and durability however. Though...maybe it were drugs. God knew an asylum could easily procure all kind of drugs and shoot their inmates up with. Some cocktail probably made the people stronger, but likely had all sorts of after effects that could very well be lethal on the long run.

Which made it just another nail to Murkoff's coffin, he figured.

He walked back upstairs and towards the security controls. The computer and security cameras were running, and he could check them from time to time as he tapped away at the keyboard.

“Bingo”

He didn't find an option to switch off the shielding- though there was the remark that it was still active- but he did find a list of current staff members, and quickly scrolled through the entries. He took note of some of the names and pictures, like CEO Jeremy Blaire. But the entry of Park, Waylon, was noted as  _Terminated contract_ .

He looked at the photograph of the man. He looked to be a bit on the thinner side, with sandy hair.  _What happened to you?_ He wondered with a twist in his stomach.

Something sat wrong with him, mostly because he's seen remarks like that a few times over already. It was most likely that Park had been caught when he sent that e-mail to Upshur. And then?

Was  _terminated contract_ equal to  _terminated employee_ ?

Following a sudden idea, Adam checked whether he could find a list of inmates. And, surprisingly, there was only one new transfer around the time Upshur received the e-mail. Noted as  _prepared for Morphogenic Therapy_ . 

He leaned back, steepling his fingers. He suspected as much- people like Murkoff didn't like just killing their enemies. They had to use them for their own gains too. Just like Belltower did in Rifleman Bank Station. Just like Darrow had done in Singapore. Like Page had done with Megan.

So Park was dressed up as inmate now. With a little luck, he had maybe managed to evade the worst of it. Where would he go look for an inmate, then?

Adam searched for the floor plans, and found some. Male Ward for the less dangerous inmates. Prison complex for the criminal insane. Abandoned female ward. Gym and vocational block. Hospital. Labs.   
Eliza already told him the approximate layout, but now he had the blueprints. He saved the layout with his Pathfinder Augmentation.

Where to now?

His gut said to check the labs, where these  _Morphogenic Therapies_ were administered. Though, with all the chaos around, it would be tough to tell where the man ended up.

Soft steps approached him, and he tilted his head to look over his shoulder. The priest stood in the doorway, arms folded behind his back. “You seem lost, my son.”

“I guess I am”, Adam admitted. “I just found out that the man I'm looking for most likely is roaming the asylum as inmate. Just, where should I start looking?”

The priest raised his hands to the ceiling for a moment. “Only He knows the answer”, he mentioned, “Yet is is His test for you to find Him on your own. However, He deemed you worthy to catch a glimpse of His glory.”

Adam furrowed his brows. “He did?”

“Yes”, the priest confirmed and walked to stand besides him, gesturing to the security videos. More specifically, the recording of what Adam had figured was one of the labs. Only, on second thought, it didn't look like he imagined the labs to be. There was an own administration desk, and it looked like it was below the surface, if the raw rock walls were anything to go by. On the ground was a form of simple Celtic Design pattern with three corners. A group of heavily armed PMCs swarmed the place, rifles held at the ready.

“Watch Him in his glory”, the priest continued. “Our Lord, the Walrider, tearing His truth into the unbelievers.”

Walrider? Like... _Project Walrider_ ? This couldn't be a coincidence, this could- 

Adam inhaled sharply as the grainy image of the security feed changed. The first soldier was suddenly yanked off his feet and dangled in mid-air like a doll, before he was literally reduced to red mist from one moment to the other. The other men started shooting, peppering the walls with bullets, but whatever it was tore them apart just like the first one, splattering blood and bits of tissues everywhere. Shadows seemed to move most unnaturally for all the few seconds it took the thing to find and destroy the camera, leaving static behind.

“See? Our Lord punishes the wicked with His holy ways”, the priest continued. “The only way you can find your quarry is by accepting His gospel and all doors shall open to you.”

All doors? Adam's eyes narrowed behind his shields. “I need to find Him then”, he commented. “And the man I came here for, too.”

The old man nodded. “You shall begin your search amongst the poorest of our souls. The Prison Ward. From there, you can traverse the hospital, where you will most likely find your quarry.” He stepped back, gesturing for him to follow. “I shall guide you to where you need to start.”

It smelled like a trap, yet was the best idea Adam had so far. He glanced back at the security feeds.

Walrider.  _Project Walrider_ . Estimated profits outweighed the loss of resources by wide margins.

The  _Morphogenic Engine_ wasn't dream therapy. He didn't know what it was, only that it likely had a connection to the Walrider.

The Walrider that was a weapon. It couldn't be anything else, not with how fast it killed those men.

This was what Murkoff was working on, using mentally dependent people for guinea pigs- a weapon to decimate the enemy. A weapon that couldn't be  _stopped_ .

It made most of the Illuminati look positively  _humane_ in comparison, Adam thought and grit his teeth. He had to stop this project. All of it. Needed to destroy the Walrider and everything that was born from it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First meeting with Chris Walker. I also headcanon that Adam's a bleeding heart, unwilling to actually hurt people, unless they deserved it. He isn't stupid, though, just doesn't want to waste time beating up mentally sick people.


	3. Mouth of the Beast

“You mind answering a few questions?” Adam asked as he trailed after the priest, who introduced himself as Father Martin. Interestingly, most inmates gave them a wide berth as they made their way through the Administration Block and outside into the courtyard. The Prison Block stood as massive, imposing construction just across the open place, where only few people were milling about.

“Ask, my son.”

“The...Walrider. What is it?”

“He is our Lord”, the priest claimed. “The wicked people of this place, they kept Him hidden. Trapped. But just tonight He broke free of His bonds and began to punish the wicked.”

So, whatever this thing was, it got out just before Adam arrived here.

“Where does...He come from?”

“From within this place. From within the madness that seeped through these walls. He rose here first, and was imprisoned here.” The priest made a wide sweeping motion, indicating the inmates. More than a few had similar tumors and blackened veins like the first few Adam's seen. “The wicked men sought to enslave Him, to use Him for their own gains. They tried to bind His glory to us poor wretches, but none could unlock Him. Some died, but all of the others remain here as broken shells. Waiting for His word so they can return into His embrace.”

The  _Morphogenic Therapy_ , Adam figured. Its purpose was to...synch the inmates with the Walrider? Only, it didn't work, caused tumors and rash and likely death.

Until now.

Because now, the Walrider was loose and was wrecking havoc on this place by killing all of Murkoff's PMCs, and releasing the insane inmates. The question was,  _what_ exactly was this thing? Probably nothing supernatural, like the priest and his followers believed. Rather some kind of weapon? Adam figured that things like P.E.P.S. could be modified to blast people apart.

And organic brain/computer connections already existed. Every Aug had them, after all.

He furrowed his brows. “You said you'll return to His embrace. Why?”

“The Walrider free is the last act”, the priest pointed out. “The last act to purify the World with His anger.”

Of course. An amok running weapon.  _Why am I even surprised?_ Adam wondered as he followed after the man to the upper gallery of the prison complex. 

“You are His Apostle, here to carry His truth out of this place. But first, you need to witness Him.” The priest stopped in front of a cell. “You will need to start here, as He will approach you while you make your way through this place. Now I need to go, and you need to remember that without me to guide you, some of these poor souls will be quite...aggressive. It is all His Will so you are prepared for His glory.”

An entire prison full of angry guys high on God knows what? Where did he hear that one before?

He tried not to show that all these inmates made him nervous, but the last time he'd been inside a prison to get somebody out, a riot broke out within the hour and he was forced to run for his life. He really should have brought more than his 10 mm Zenith and the few grenades, all of which were secure inside their respective holsters.

At least he had a weapon this time, and most of his augmentations too. He watched the priest hurry off, and turned to check the area before these guys here realized he was alone now. The cell was likely the old man's, padded and scrawled over and over with crosses and looping swirls. Latter he recognized quickly.

The Church of the Machine God. So Father Martin was one of Allison Stánek's colleagues. Or, at least, he used to be before he turned to the Walrider. Adam found a few more remarks, painted in blood.  _Rest in Peace_ , and the name Wernicke. Who was this Wernicke, then?

An inmate shrieked the moment he turned into his direction, and Adam grimaced as he took in the area. The Penthouse in Arizona had been pretty at least. This here was bad lighting, concrete walls and steel doors everywhere. Additionally, more than a fourth of all floors had crumbled away, leaving gaping openings. No wonder they never managed to rehabilitate anybody with such interior design.

Where to, now? Adam had Park's possible prisoner number, and the cells had their corresponding number written across their doors. Just, this prison was huge, and the chance was high that the man was in the Male Ward with the less dangerous elements (and that made him question just  _who_ this Father Martin was if he was here in the prison complex).

He slowly walked along the upper gallery, briefly eying the locked door that cut the two upper areas off from each other- and threw a single punch to break the lock and continue through. Maybe he could find files on the inmates here, try to cross-reference with the number he had and find out whether Park was here in the first place?

The crack of the lock breaking however roused the inmates. Some screamed in panic, others screamed in rage, and some shattered the observation window on their cells and clawed at him as he passed them by.

“Who's this?” 

“Maybe Father Martin's man.” The lucid voices surprised him enough so he paused and turned towards another fenced-off area. There were two men, looking similar enough to be related, and actually lacking most of the deformities the other inmates shared. But they definitely belonged in this place, because they were both butt naked and held long knives in their hands.

“Maybe”, the first one said, then squinted. “He looks nervous”

“I would like to kill him”, the second pointed out with a horrible casual tone. 

“As would I”, the other confirmed. 

“The preacher asked us not to”, the second pointed out.

“It would be impolite”, the first agreed.

“Not here”

“We give him a running start?”

“There's an idea.”

“And when we kill him, we kill him slow.”

“Such patience. I want his tongue and liver.”

“They are yours”, the first agreed.

Adam sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I am not going to run”, he told them. “Neither are you going to get anything from me. Consider this a warning,  _gentlemen_ . Good day.” He pulled an imaginary hat and walked down the stairs, hearing their voices behind him. “A gentleman, you heard that? Maybe I won't want his tongue.”

His coat whipped behind him as he walked towards the lower level, and most of the inmates around actually backed off fearfully. A few did not, one was constantly knocking his head against the walls to leave bloody stains. The others had massive surgical scars adorning their bodies, and barely looked human anymore from the tumors and mutilations.

He set his jaws and continued his way, making sure to record as much as possible of his surroundings to gather enough evidence of the humanitarian catastrophe he walked into.

A set of heavy steps made him halt in his tracks. Too open, too many eyes. Too obvious. Smart Vision flickered to life and he discovered a weakened wall in one of the cells. He headed there and closed the door behind himself to reduce noise. Then he reeled his fist back and crushed it into the weakened wall to reveal the crawlspace behind. Much better than being in the open, he figured, and climbed through the hole he'd torn. The piping allowed for a good grip, though he quickly regretted having taken this shortcut. Mostly because of the inmate engaging in Necrophilia with a headless corpse.

“Have to ask whether I can delete memories”, he grumbled as the man started screaming at him that he was the sick guy because obviously he liked to watch. A quick flick of his wrist and sinking his fist into the wall besides his head had the wished effect that the man scuttled off in terror.

Adam turned and headed into the opposite direction, returning to the gallery. The floor here was gone, but a quick Icarus Dash fixed that problem. On second thought, he could have leapt up from below in the beginning, would have spared him the pictures he'd need lots of whiskey to banish from his mind.

He found a message written in blood that told him to follow the blood trail. Father Martin's work, no doubt. The air lock was more interesting, however, because it meant he was hopefully getting closer to a security office.

Another locked door blocked his way. Adam crushed the lock and swung the door open, heading to the right first. To find an office with a computer.

“Perfect” He made a straight line for the computer, listening intently to the surrounding area. An inmate nearby kept droning on how something was conjured, but he didn't hear any steps. So he made short work of the system and checked into it. He found and downloaded a few complaints, especially about patients not getting the treatment they needed, which made it even more obvious that Murkoff had no intention on making their patients better in any way.  
He didn't find anything about Waylon Park, however.

Adam turned and headed back into the barricaded hallway, vaulting over the barricade- and heard screams. Without thinking, he  _ran_ , sliding around a corner to see an inmate viciously beating a guard- who was still alive. Adam lunged, shattered the observation glass easily, and tackled into the inmate. He seized the man's throat tightly, smashed him against the closest hard surface, and just bodily threw his form through the window to land in the hallway in a crumpled pile.

The guard was badly beaten, but alive when Adam knelt down besides him and pulled a stim from his pocket. “Easy. I got you”, he muttered, injecting it into the man. The drugs didn't heal a body, but they had a clotting agent that stopped the bleeding at least, as well as an medical aid to stabilize the system.

The guard wheezed, eyes wide at his sight. “Thank-you”, he breathed. “These animals-”

“Won't hurt you.” He pulled the man to his feet. “You can't stay here, is there a secure place?”

“Security office--down the hall.”

“Good”, he dragged the guard with him. “What happened here?”

“The inmates got out”, the man replied with a painful grimace. “Not sure how, but suddenly everything's FUBAR.”

“Figured that much”, Adam stopped briefly and sat his passenger down against a wall. “Hold on.” He swung the door to the security office open, taking the inmate there by surprise. The man yelled and swung a wooden plank at him. He side-stepped, grabbed the arm and easily broke it, then slammed his hand against the man's throat to knock him out. He dragged the body into the hallways, and helped the guard inside.

“I have questions I need answered”, he told him when he put him in the chair there and started moving the furniture to build a barricade. 

“You saved me, so I owe you”, the man wheezed. “What can I do for you?”

“I'm looking for a Waylon Park. Employee 1466. I have reason to assume he's being kept as inmate here.”

“Another one?” The man seemed surprised. “Shit, I knew shit was fucked up, but to go so far-”

“ _Another_ one?”

“Trager”, the guard explained. “Doctor Trager. Used to work here, but the next time I've seen him and he's in the labs and not in a lab coat anymore.” He shook his head. “Listen, I'm just the night guard at the butt end of this area. Nobody comes to tell me anything, okay? You're looking for your man, you have to go to the Male Ward. Or the labs. I know we didn't have any newcomers here.”

“I understand” Adam nodded to himself, then put a bottle of painkillers next to the man. “Here, take some if the pain gets worse, but no more than two, you hear me? Lock the door and barricade it as soon as I'm gone.”

“Don't need to tell me twice” The man gave him a sloppy salute, wincing at the pain. “And thank you again, Mr..?”

“Jensen. I'm with Interpol.”

He left the room, but waited until he heard the distinct click of a key being turned, and the scratching of furniture on the floor.

The Male Ward or the labs, huh?

According to the layout, the labs were closest, touching corners directly with the prison block. Then there was the female ward, now derelict. Male ward and vocational block were across the courtyard.

Adam figured he'd go to the labs first, check the female ward (because if he was a scared IT engineer, he would go to the derelict area first and hide out there. Pritchard would have done so, and Chang confirmed that crumbling buildings had been his first choice to hide, too), and then go to the male ward. Would be doable. He just had to pass a few more air locks.

One was nearby, and he easily passed through. He found the two naked men nearby, glaring at him through another set of iron bars and telling each other how patient they've been. Adam turned and walked away, deciding to look for another way instead of breaking down the door and punching these guys out. Not that he usually entertained the idea of violence as the first thought per se, but this place just made him want to hit things.

He grimaced to himself with the realization that he'd been here maybe an hour, and was already fed up with everything. Not fed up enough to hit the patients of an insane asylum for being creepy, though. Yet.

So he punched the closest wall instead, breaking it down in a cloud of rubble and dusk, to find another security office and the third air lock. Additionally, he heard the low and surprised voices of the twins, and the shuffle of feet. Good, teaches them to try and mess with him. The best defenses are those you never needed to use, after all.

The air lock in itself was broken, and when Adam made his way through it, he froze in place when he noticed Walker in the level below him, holding another guard up by the throat. Without wasting a beat, the giant grabbed the man's head and yanked it clean off, muttering about needing to contain something.

Contain what? The madness?

Adam grit his teeth and hurried further along the place. He found the shower room, and heard the crash of thunder outside. Found also one of the twins blocking his way he had to pass in order to get to the labs.

A quick glance upwards showed him crawlspace above, so all he needed to do was pull his Glass Shield to cloak his form and hop upwards to pull himself into the ceiling. The twins seemed surprised by his sudden disappearance, and went on to look for him, to 'split his belly open' because he was apparently thinking they were stupid.

Well, he thought so, so no need to tell them that.

Adam continued crawling through the ceiling, and eventually dropped down to continue his way. The twins were heading into the opposite direction, likely to look out of the window and see whether he was sticking to the walls outside.

By the time they would realize he was gone, he would probably be halfway through the next air lock. The door was closed, however, so he went to look for the security office with the switch to unlock the way. Or maybe find another way around.

The moment he hit the switch, everything went to shit. Because when the door slid open, Walker stepped into the air lock, turned and glared at him. Adam stared back, clenching his fists. Asshole was too much trouble to put down, so when Walker started hammering against the glass to crack it, Adam ran to the back of the room, broke down the covering of the air vent, and slid in the moment the giant smashed the observation windows and dashed towards his hiding place too.

The second he thrust his arm inside in an attempt to grab him, Adam released the super-heated nano blade from his wrist. Walker's limb was nearly flayed from the force of the impact and the razor-like shrapnel, and he reeled back, howling in pain.

Adam instantly turned and rushed down the air vent, dropping out of the ceiling the next second. Walker was close behind him however, roaring at him. The agent just picked up his speed and ran towards the air lock, only to find it on fire.

And exploding right into his face the next second. Systems screamed in alarm at him as he found himself flung backwards through a plate glass window. He crashed into the ground the next second with a squelch, and the back of his head suddenly felt wet.

He turned slightly, frowning. “Of course”, he deadpanned. “A pile of bloody corpses. Never going to get those stains out of that coat.”

He should be feeling sick at the sight and knowledge he'd just fallen into the rather fresh remains of at least forty people, but he'd seen so much death already in his life, he didn't feel anything other than the constantly bubbling anger at whoever made this place. He pulled himself to his feet, tried not to think about his expensive and ruined coat, and began to reorient himself.

Walker jumped down in that moment, making to grab him, but he easily avoided and faded in a shimmer of gold. The giant froze, swiping at the area Adam's been in just a second ago, but finding nobody.

“Come out, little piggy!” He snarled. “I'm going to find all you whores!”

What a charming fellow. He really should leave him with a parting gift then. Adam felt the frag grenade in his pocket, pulled the pin and simply rolled it over the floor to come to rest near Walker's feet.

When it blew, bodies splattered under the force of the impact, sending pieces of human flesh flying everywhere. Walker disappeared inside the blast. Adam didn't stay to check the effect, just raced out of the closer area and dashed up a staircase, dropping his cloak the next second and startling a few inmates who'd been attracted by the noise.

“LITTLE PIG!” The enraged scream sent the men scatter in panic.

Wonderful. Asshole survived. Was probably tougher than Barrett or Marchenko. And was pissed now. Adam figured he needed to do defeat him more permanently, once he had secured Park, that was.

For now, he continued his mad dash away from the raging asshole, targeted the railing further up and kicked off in a shower of golden sparks as the Icarus catapulted him upwards.

An inmate tried to grab at him. Adam kicked his foot out to knock him flat against the floor, followed up with a punch straight at his jaw to take him down. Then he continued running along the gallery, dodging a few more inmates that tried to claw at him.

Wayfinder told him he was currently running along the eastern side of the prison, and the floor plans told him that the labs were supposed on the east side of the complex. Adam changed his direction, headed straight upwards in another brilliant spark of gold to cling to the ceiling construction.

Air vents, could always count on them, huh? He grinned briefly as he slipped into the nearest opening and climbed upwards, eventually getting to the roof of the complex.

Only the towers of the Administration complex were taller than the prison complex, and Adam enjoyed the rain of the thunderstorm for a while as he looked around. To the south, the Admin building, with the courtyard just between them. To the west, the male ward and the vocational block with another fenced-off courtyard stretching along the north. To the east, the hospital ward with another courtyard enclosed by it and the female ward, derelict and mostly decayed already. Somewhere down there was Waylon Park. Once he had him, he would leave this fucking place. Probably have Janus burn it all down.

Adam turned to the east and glanced down towards the recreational courtyard below.

He stepped off the building.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finished searching the Prison Complex. If you can break down doors and walls to scare crazies off, everything becomes much easier, right? 


	4. Collateral Damage

From up close, Adam could tell that the hospital wing had been hit hardest when the riots started. He had gotten used to the constant smell of blood and other body products that surrounded the Administration Block and the Prison Ward, but the hospital wing was a whole different level of stomach-turning.

Additionally, many of the doors had been torn out, and the windows were broken. Entry was easy, but the situation wasn't. Disintegrated corpses everywhere, and bodies that had seemingly been beaten to death by inmates.

Something had set them off.

Most of the area was covered in plastic sheets, and there were countless airlocks installed in this place, making it look a lot more like hyper sterile labs designed to work with viruses and bacteria, not the hospital wing of a mental asylum. Which raised the question about just what they have been doing here.

...He hoped he would find a way into their systems, because this shit couldn't be allowed to continue. With a deep frown, Adam began walking down the brightly lit hallways, keeping an eye out for stairs. In the upper levels it was more likely to find information he could actually use, though he took the time to record each mutilated corpse. Each body was just another nail to Murkoff's coffin, because it was Murkoff who drove the inmates so mad they eventually retaliated with this form of extreme violence.

Doors had been locked or blocked by obstacles, but at this point, Adam really didn't bother with subtlety anymore. One kick, or punch, and the obstacles sprang open. He avoided the air locks, however, and went to great pains to circumvent them directly. One exploding into his face had been enough, and those here looked a lot like they were thinking about doing the same.

He dropped from the ceiling into another blood stained hallway, and found himself next to three larger cells. Different from the others, as they had only a chair for restraining in the middle, and a large monitor on one side with a camera mounting next to it. Etched into the doors he could see the triangle knot pattern he'd seen before.  _Project Walrider_ .

He furrowed his brows. The cells on the left and right were drenched in blood and body parts, like he'd seen on the security videos. The one in the middle was clean, however. No dismantled corpses anywhere.

He turned to the left and spotted the computer setup at the end of the hallway. Slightly bloodied, but functional. He switched it on, browsed through the last files.

_Morphogenic Therapy online. Patients_ -

Adam inhaled sharply. The second number was what he came to associate with Park. And he'd been correct assuming those two were connected, because the name added after the number was, in fact,  _Park_ . This was the first solid clue he had of the missing IT expert- he had been here, and not very long ago, in fact. More even, his designated cell was the one in the middle, the one that was  _free of blood_ and was missing the camcorder he could see in the other two cells. His heart skipped. The chances to find the man just sky-rocketed.

As he turned away, he accidentally hit a button that replayed whatever they had been shown on the screens. Adam paused, surprised. It was like watching ink dissolve in water, mixed with a flipping Rorschach Test. It didn't make any sense. He switched it off again, shook his head. He figured it was kind of dumb, but then remembered that he was standing some feet away and being able to move as he wished. But if he was tied to this chair and had nowhere else to look to, he was sure he would lose it if he was constantly exposed to this stuff.

Wait...was this the idea behind this whole 'therapy'? Drive the inmates mad?

He'd seen the remarks  _lucid dreaming_ on a few documents, and combined with watching this strange static for hours, he could imagine that any sleep would be riddled with livid nightmares.

He grit his teeth when he wrestled with himself what to do. In the end, he made sure to turn back to the computer and scroll through the data there again. He took special note of the names and numbers as he downloaded them, and hoped Janus would give him a copy once he got all this back to Juggernaut. And it was going to get to Juggernaut, then he would supply Samizdat and the Rippers, too. Latter would gut Murkoff's servers with great pleasure (Pritchard would complain about that, but he would do it anyways, because deep down he was a good man), and first would just enjoy bringing all of these horrors to their readers to counter Picus's lies.

Once he had finished, he pulled back and secured the data rod. Now he just had to follow Park's steps. He couldn't think like he normally thought, he had to think like a terrified and likely traumatized civilian. So he briskly walked down the hallway and back into the plastic-sheet-covered areas. This time, he headed left, passed by what looked like an operation theater that featured a long-dead doctor that had been thoroughly gutted. The blood was already congealed and most inmates had vacated the area, but a few remained around. He saw empty faces, and knew that whatever had kept them going was gone now. They basically raged their anger out, and were pretty much docile now.

Mostly, because the moment they saw him, they did spit some obscenities, but kept their distance all the same. Adam knew it was because of his appearance, with his overall height and the black coat that billowed behind him. Mac told him he 'looked scary as fuck, especially when surrounded by carnage. Doesn't matter if you caused the carnage or ended it.'

Adam agreed, and was glad the men stayed away. He didn't wanted to hurt people who weren't even in their right mind, and he figured that most of the inmates wouldn't have hurt anybody if Murkoff hadn't gotten them between their greedy claws.

There were exceptions, of course. Walker, for example, the twins, or any of those inmates that charged him in rage, not fear. Those he could stomach to hurt, maybe even kill if it was self defense, or defending somebody else.

He didn't enjoy the act of killing, but he enjoyed the sort of peace it brought when he took down somebody who really  _deserved_ it.

Had been quite a while since he went full amok mode on the Dvali, first slaughtering Otar and his men for threatening Koller, then Radich and his team for assisting in terrorism. He'd gotten an ear full from the entirety of the organized crime division for this. The peace that followed it, coupled with the collapse in violent crimes was worth it though.

Peace he wouldn't find here, however. He needed to get out, but couldn't leave Park here either. Once he found him, he would go back for that one guard, hoping the man hadn't left his position.

He didn't even know his name.

Adam ducked under a destroyed ceiling light, and climbed up on the plastic walkway to get into an air vent. He figured this was the way Park would have went himself, it wasn't too hard to do, even without augmentations.

He dropped from the ceiling at the first chance, and found himself in the less pristine areas. Storage rooms, lounge rooms- all with peeling wall paint and crumbling linoleum. One kitchen made his stomach turn at the sight of body parts strewn about, and there were headless corpses dressed in patient's clothing hanging from the ceiling in the cooler connected to it. A large pot full of human remains sat on the stove in the kitchen, bubbling happily like stew.

Adam swallowed bile.

A glass divider in the lunch room was splattered with blood, and another, definitely partially eaten corpse laid on a table with a blood-stained microwave oven next to it. He found half an eyeball and didn't have to think too hard what happened here- somebody microwaved a human head until it exploded.

...He thought about it and was going to be sick now. Great.

Cannibalism always got his gut turning. He grimaced briefly and forced his breathing back under control, searching through his systems to find the one sub-system online that prevented back-flow from his stomach. Sarif had originally installed it so he would withstand sudden trajectory changes without throwing up, but it also helped him not being sick from sights and smells.

He was also definitely going to need a good memory wipe after this. And whiskey. Lots and lots of whiskey.

With a grimace, he turned back to the task at hand, activating his Smart Vision from time to time to keep an eye out for any way upstairs. A hole in the ceiling was good enough. Klipspringer helped with the boost, and everything else was just a matter of holding to the edge and pulling himself upwards.

He found a few offices in short notice, mostly spared from the violence, but even here were tons of bodies and body parts to maneuver around. At least the computers weren't damaged too much, so he could hack in and pull off some more data.

He really wished he could be sick now, because the entries he saw clearly stated that most of the inmates were deliberately driven mad. Claustrophobic patient? Lock him into small places in the name of 'confrontation therapy'. Patient recovered with the help of finger painting? Remove finger painting from the program. Instead, drugs to keep them docile. Then more drugs to counter the after effects.

He found data regarding the Morphogenic Therapy, found video files of inmates going through it, found entries about sudden deaths and their causes. He learnt that women didn't exist in Mount Massive when seven of them (five inmates and two employees) developed psychosomatic pregnancies. The inmates died from spontaneous termination, the employes were relocated and bribed to prevent a judicial repercussions.

No women since then in Mount Massive.

Adam leaned back, pinching the bridge of his nose. His head hurt from all of it. Felt like static was crawling inside his brain. He was probably tired, and under shock most likely. Looked like he had to book a meeting with Doctor Auzenne later on.

He remained that way for a moment, until he, on a whim, typed in Waylon Park's name. Immediately, he found the man's employment contract. Contract stated he was to be employed for two months, without any contact to the outside world, however. Worked on the Morphogenic Engine and Project Walrider. Next to the remark _Terminated_ was the remark _Transferred to_ _Morphogenic Therapy_. A small note below stated his martial status. Married, two children.

Adam hissed when he found a series of pictures of a blonde woman and two blonde children. Recent date, seemed like they have been taken without their knowledge.

Murkoff was watching Park's family. Stalking them.

_Shit_ . He had to contact Alex, had to tell her to get the family to safety.

But he had to shut down the shielding first. Park could probably help, seeing as he'd been here for more than a month already and likely had access to a few systems.

He secured the data on Janus's device, and left to head back downstairs and return to the hallway he left before. He had what he needed to bury these assholes deep. He just had to get Janus to send an anonymous package to Interpol, and they would swarm this place here like locusts.

All he had to do was locate Waylon Park, and get the Hell out of here. Just...

He looked around in the blood streaked hallway. Where was he? Was he still alive? Adam knew his face now, thanks to the extensive files, but that didn't meant he knew where he was. Hell, his 'following his trail' had been wishful thinking. As far as he knew, Park could be one of the many headless corpses around here.

Didn't mean he was going to give up, however. He had a feeling inside his gut that Park was still alive- and he was pretty sure it wasn't nausea. He slowly walked down the hallway, heading left as soon the possibility was given, leapt over a closed door that had a large enough gap at the top, and passed through an open door made of iron mesh. A set of stairs led to the basement of the complex. Raw bricks formed the walls and floor.

For some reason, it was notably warmer down here than it was further up. The boiler room, maybe?

When Adam passed through another door, he realized that it was, in fact, not the boiler room, but rather the asylum-owned crematory. It was in working condition, too, but so far, he only saw one body, and from the smell, it was lying here a while already.

One incinerator was open, and he saw the back wall missing. And next to the hatch- Adam knelt down and picked up a piece of cloth. Piece of the sleeve, it looked like.

His heart skipped as he noticed the number. Waylon Park's number. He'd been down-

A body collided with him, claw-like fingers digging into his coat violently. Adam spun around and threw himself- and his attacker- against the wall of the furnace. The impact was enough to make his attacker loosen his hold, a second the agent used to whirl on his heel and slam his hand against the man's throat to pin him.

He nearly let go again, thinking he just assaulted one of the panicking inmates. But then his grip hardened and his eyes narrowed. There was no fear on the man's features, only hate and hunger. A similar kind of rage as he'd seen on Walker's face, and his gut told him that this guy was dangerous, despite his appearance.

The man was almost skinny, stained in blood with strange symbols carved into his skin. He was nearly naked, asides from a pair of briefs. Hair and beard were long, his eyes wild. He was spitting curses at him, struggling to free himself.

Respect where it was due, he was pretty strong for his build. Adam didn't give him a chance, released the blade on his free arm and pointed it at the inmate. “Who are you?” He barked.

The inmate jerked, eyes narrow. “I am who I am!” He snapped back, teeth bared. “You- you are meat!”

Adam's nose curled in disgust at the stench on the man's breath, and he recognized it easily. He increased the pressure on the man's throat. “You're the one that had been eating all those corpses up there, aren't you?”

“I love them!” The man countered, “Such wonderful meat. So red, and so fresh.”

Adam felt a little sick, but slid the blade back. Guy was insane, not a psycho. Instead of the weapon, he lifted the shredded cloth up to the cannibal's eyes. “You have been here before, right? Where does this come from?”

The man squinted, head snapping to the side as he considered the area. “The meat”, he explained. “So soft, so juicy. Ran away. I tried to cook it, but it didn't get cooked. Oven was  _broken_ !”

Park had been here. More even, this psycho had attacked him and- Adam swallowed heavily- tried to burn him alive in the crematory. But Park had managed to escape, by kicking out the back wall of the furnace. “Where? Where did he go?!”

“Ran”, the cannibal wheezed. “Like a whore. Outside!”

“Good” Adam stepped back and let go, making the man crumble to the floor. “Now get lost.” _Before I lose it_ , he added inside his head.

The cannibal scrambled away. Adam snorted and headed back to the incinerators, scanning them with Smart Vision. Second hallway behind them, likely where Park fled to.

Weakened wall structure to the left of the furnaces. He reeled his arm back and smashed it into the crumbling brick to break it apart and get to the other side. He spotted a hole in the ceiling, and a shaft beyond it.

He lunged upwards, grabbing the lower ledge to pull himself upwards. He easily navigated the area, his build-in gyroscopes helping him keep his balance, when he spotted a piece of glass on the floor- and blood.

If Park was here, he likely stepped into the glass shard and injured himself. Who else would be climbing along here without shoes otherwise but an inmate?

He followed the bloody footprint for a while, until it disappeared. Dirt obviously clotted the injury up, and adrenaline probably drove the man forwards without him noticing his wound. Terrified people were capable of great feats.

Adam climbed to the top of the shaft and snuck through another air vent, dropping into another hallway. Shame about the floor, he couldn't see into which direction Park had went. He activated Smart Vision, hoping to see the track--

All of his systems screamed at him, and glitches ripped across his field of vision with such a shocking intensity, he dropped to his knees in pain. It felt like his brain was being twisted and cooked inside his metal skull, and static roared in his ears.

Something black was flitting past him from the edge of his vision. Something like smoke. But moving too fast, and too solid, and it looked too human to  _be_ smoke-

Was this some after effect of the shielding around the building? Did it come from the weird Morphogenic Therapy video he'd seen? Or did he go insane suddenly, like ninety million people had done two years ago?

There was the scream of metal, and something ripped into his shoulder, screeching as it glanced off metal and artificial muscles and slipped into flesh. Adam yelled in surprise, the pain instantly snapping his vision clear, and the TITAN rippled across his surface the next second. Metal screeched again and broke in a true cacophony, and he stumbled to his feet, clumsily dropping against the wall. The neodymium shell receded again as his body automatically prioritized the Sentinel.

Hot blood ran down his back, and for a moment, he didn't even know what was going on, right up until a sharp knife slammed into his side and dug deep until the mesh of his sub-dermal armor caught it.

A snarl ripped out of his throat as he spun around, eyes focusing on the cannibal's face. Blades snapped out of his wrists as Adam lunged, burying one into the man's chest, then stepped around his body to jab the blade through his elbow into the man's back to pierce the heart. Surprise was clearly visible on the cannibal's face until it went slack and his body collapsed to the ground.

Adam stared at the form baffled. Then the pain from his shoulder set in and he groaned, dropping back against the wall.

The hatchet the inmate attacked him with was still sticking out of his side, so he pulled it out and pressed his hand against the wound to stem the bleeding. Now his coat definitely was ruined, and he had to wait until the Sentinel finished patching him up.

But what had this guy attacked him with- oh. A hand-held circular saw. For working with wood. Must have hit the metal part of his shoulder first and bounced off to bite into his back. Guy didn't take his metal bones or his armor into account, though, so the saw hadn't gotten in deep.

Then his TITAN had come to life and broken the tool. Koller was still going to have to look whether anything got damaged.

If he hadn't glitched, then this asshole wouldn't have been able to sneak up on him.

...What had caused the glitch in the first place?

Adam didn't know. He was sure he'd seen something...human in that moment. A ghost?

He didn't believe in ghosts, but something had messed up his systems bad enough a psycho with a circular hand saw had taken him by surprise.

He carefully moved his arm, finding nothing obstructing its movement. At least Sarif made good quality on that front, he thought grimly.

Taking a deep breath, he headed further down the hallway. With the cannibal gone, he could move relatively securely now. He found another few air locks, damaged control rooms and dead staff members. Found a few notes that claimed even staff members were starting to see 'Wernicke's Pet Project'. The Walrider?

Was this what he'd seen?

Likely, but that didn't explain what it was. The inmates believed it was a god, or a ghost. It was something else instead. With all the technology around, Adam would bet it was something technological. Maybe it was an experimental P.E.P.S- like technology that either spontaneously disintegrated human flesh, or caused hallucinations through low-frequency waves.

Adam stopped when he picked up the scent of fresh air. He was nearly out of this place, and the cannibal had mentioned that Park escaped outside. Well, outside then.

He found the fire escape easily enough, and walked down towards the Recreation Yard.

Slowing down finally, he breathed the night air, the scent of the rain and the trees in deep.

Almost enjoyable, if one forget where he was currently.

On his way across the yard, he spotted a few inmates playing basketball- using a severed head, of course, and the twins. They didn't see him yet, so Adam stepped back and activated the Glass Shields to walk past them easily. Walls and fences meant little to him anyways, so he crossed the place much faster than any non-augmented person would have done.

The Female Ward towered in front of him. He didn't see any ground-level entrances, and, if Park went this way, he wouldn't have jumped up into the second story to get through that open window, right?

He did find an open window and wooden pallets that had been stacked above each other just around a corner however. This looked a lot more like somebody could have used it. He followed the trail and pulled himself through the window into the derelict female ward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hospital Wing searched. Don't forget, unlike Miles Upshur, who only wants to get out of the Asylum, Adam is here to find Waylon Park, so of course he got a solid reason to be there.
> 
> At least, he took down one of the more dangerous inmates. And met the Walrider for the first time.


	5. Medical Malpractice

The floor tiles were crumbling, wall paint peeling, the ceilings had caved in in some places, fire damage. Adam was reminded of some of the older buildings he'd seen in Prague.

Interestingly, the damage looked old. Like 70s old, when the asylum had been closed down. But if there had been women up to around 2011 since 2009, where had they been kept? If they stayed here, then this was just another proof of the catastrophic conditions here.

He noticed some inmates hiding at the end of the hallways, but they hurried away the moment he became aware of them. Static was buzzing inside his head, getting louder when he wandered down a hallway. There was a laundry room with old washing machines and old spin dryers, and one of them was running. The buzzing became louder, overlapping with his image converters and producing glitches that ran across his field of vision in streaks of distorted pictures. Didn't hurt much more asides from the headache, though.

A black cloud was whirling inside the spin dryer. Black clouds like he'd seen in the hospital wing. Intrigued, Adam carefully reached a hand into the material, and the static became worse in an instant. He yanked his hand back, and the buzzing resumed like it had done before.

Was this a part of the Walrider? Looked like it.

Smart Vision located particles, not much larger than soot, and it smelled and looked oily too. But it was inactive, so he just let it be and simply walked away.

One inmate approached him from the dark. Adam simply walked past him when the guy didn't show any signs of aggression, but when he glanced back, the man was following after him. He let him be and headed towards the main entrance. Locked, but the stairwell was only half collapsed and a bloody arrow pointed further up. The jump was doable by normal human standards and downright easy for augs.

It was still dark around here, though his enhanced vision took care of that and let him see like it was bright day. He didn't notice anything of interest, asides from what looked like a funeral scene with a dead inmate surrounded by candles. The man standing next to the body was holding a cleaver, and was glancing at Adam from the corner of his eyes. The agent simply grabbed the door frame and broke a solid piece of wood and brick from it as warning. The inmate backed off, and he continued his way through the place. One inmate charged him. He grabbed the man, flipped him around and smashed him against the floor hard enough so he would stay down.

A guard's body had been stuffed down the laundry chute, and a key was peeking out of his pocket. He remembered the locked door blocking the stairs up. If this was the only way out, then Park hadn't been here anyways.

So he turned and was about to head downstairs and outside when static flickered across his field of vision and he froze, watching the shadowy form of the Walrider flit down a hallway across from him. Was it following him?

Unlike the few inmates, this thing did actually cause troubles. More even, it also moved downstairs, so exactly where he wanted to go. Upstairs then. Get to the roof and hop down from there. He broke down the lock and walked to the third level, noticing the arrows painted in blood. He ignored those and looked for any window facing the courtyard he could utilize. He met the twins briefly, but they kept their distance from him, especially when he just gave up and broke down a wall leading to the elevator shaft. He climbed upwards, broke down the doors another level up, and climbed through the hole.

The floor was in very bad constitution, and creaked under his weight. Adam scanned the area with Smart Vision, identified the weak points- and decided to screw it all and just started sprinting. Ancient wood crumbled away under his feet as he dashed along the unstable flooring towards a West-facing window that wasn't obstructed with iron bars.

With one last push of speed, aided by the Icarus Dash system, he threw himself to the front and right through the window. Glass shattered as he leapt into empty space, momentum carrying him forwards for a bit until gravity took hold of him and dragged him down.

Golden light encased him and broke the fall mere moments later as shards dropped to the ground around him.

He rose from the crouch he'd been in, furrowing his brows. It was still raining, and with the wet floor and constant downpour he wouldn't be able to sneak as easily. At least the thunder had lessened considerably with the storm moving away, so he could actually listen to footsteps other than his own, since he didn't want to provoke any confrontations. He was well aware that most inmates would only assault him if he strayed too close, but there had been more than a few that actively hunted him down.

His systems screamed at him again, and glitches raced across his field of vision the next second. Adam listed to the side as synapses were fried and all of his sensors fired signals at once. Between the random switches between vision and colors that mostly took his sight, he could still spot a black cloud hover across the courtyard and vanish somewhere above the Asylum.

The Walrider on a walk outside.

Once it was at a good distance, his systems started to reboot, and the pain lessened drastically.

Right up until this thing came back and came directly at him, hovering in front of him. Adam grit his teeth to stifle the groan, but it still got out. The thing hovered for a moment longer, and the glitches started to ease up.

It  _looked_ human, at least, with a head and eyes and limbs, but it also looked skeletal and after a short moment, it reached out and all of Adam's systems blackened out for a second.  _All_ of them, and for a very short moment, he distinctly felt his heart stop-

Sentinel jumped into action to stabilize him, and he came back online bit by bit so he became aware he was lying face-down on the wet ground.

“Fuck”, he groaned once his voice box was back. “Felt like the bastard love child between an EMP Chair and the Choke.” He scrambled back upright, letting a diagnosis run across himself to make sure he wasn't accidentally reset to Factory Zero. 

He wasn't, and he exhaled in relief.

Then his brows came down when he also realized that he certainly shouldn't fuck with the Walrider. If the contact had been any longer, it could have damaged him beyond repair, killing him simply by stopping his heart. If the inmates didn't rip him apart before that.

However, it also confirmed a suspicion he harbored. This thing was something technological.

Either that or an actual ghost, but that seemed somewhat ludicrous.

Adam paused and went back to his systems to switch the Blackbox back on and shut down as many redundant augmentations as he could- CASIE, LIDAR, and the Micro Assembler among others- to reroute all available processing power to overclock his EMP shielding and Pritchard's homemade firewall. If the Walrider was indeed technological and came at him again, he hoped it would deter it long enough so he could get distance.

A simple precaution, because he certainly had no intention getting close to that thing again.

Luckily, it also stayed away this time, likely hiding in some place in the asylum. Additionally, the rain kept most of the inmates indoors. Except for the one Adam could see who was sitting on the roof of a shed and hummed to himself.

Other than that, the place was pretty calm. Several fences blocked his way, but they were easily vaulted over with the Klipspringer, and his metal hand protected him well enough against the barbed wire on top. At the same time, he kept an eye out for any unobstructed paths a non-augmented person would have walked. He discovered one that could have been possible- It consisted mostly of easy-to-reach rooftops and wide decorative ledges on the prison's walls, but it would be doable if driven by enough fear and desperation.

Then he noticed something big move about, and he sighed to himself. Walker, of course. Asshole didn't seem to be worse off from being blown up. Adam changed his course and passed him by in a wide circle. Rain and darkness was going to hide him well enough anyways.

At the end of the yard, he found the male ward towering over him. He slowly walked along its side until he found a basement entrance at the bottom of a set of stairs. The door hung open, the lock was broken. So, if Park had walked along here, he wouldn't have had much problems doing so.

_Again with the basements._ With a sigh, Adam walked down the steps, and pushed the obstacle open.

* * *

The stench rising from the sewer beneath the basement nearly took Adam's breath, and he already did spend a fair amount of time in sewers, so if he found something unbearable it was to be taken serious. He grimaced and stopped briefly to focus on breathing through his mouth. Which maybe wasn't the smartest move, because now his tongue tasted like the air smelled.

Still, he traversed the underground complex, looking for stairs, or maybe just an air vent to get up, wandering into what looked like an operation theater. With bloody beds. He even discovered body parts and one that contained a heavily mutilated dead inmate.  
On the ceiling, he found an open air vent, but it was much too high up for any non-augmented person to just jump up, so he ignored it in favor for looking for another way a normal human would have went.

He discovered a whole pile of bodies, looked like it was just a drop-off side, and the smell was unbearable down here. Adam grimaced and headed to the left, crouching down to crawl through an air vent in the wall besides him.

Well, now he knew why it smelled so bad down here, and where all the corpses have gone to. Because, quite frankly, there have been too little bodies strewn around in the asylum upstairs. Then everything went to shit the second time that day. Or was it the third? Fourth? He was rapidly losing count here from the times things did not go the way he wanted.  
Anyways, somebody screamed, and all of a sudden a whole pack of inmates rushed towards him, screaming.

Again, it reminded him of Panchaea. So he was going to treat this like Panchaea. His hand snapped back to reveal the muzzle of his P.E.P.S. gun. The second the first guys broke down the door, he pulled the trigger and the focused shockwave blasted all of them back. Only six, he could deal with that, he thought, as he lunged at the guys. He kicked his leg out and caught the first guy at the hip with enough strength to fling him through the air and into a wall. The man collapsed, unconscious. Adam was pretty sure he also broke something, but didn't find it in himself to care.

Two tried to flank him. He threw both arms out, snatched both men at their necks, and slammed their heads together. As they swayed back dazed, he swung his arm in what was basically a slap and knocked both out.

One tried to throw a punch at him. He spun to the side, grabbed the fifth guy and bodily dragged him between them to catch the attack with his face instead of Adam, getting knocked out in the process. Then Adam threw the guy at his attacker to get him to back off briefly, while he pounced on inmate number six. Grabbing his shoulders hard, he yanked him close while he threw his skull to the front and smashed it into the man's face to take him down.

Number four was the only one left standing, and when Adam turned to smirk at him, the guy turned tail and ran away faster than anybody without augmentations had any right to.

He let him go, just brushed off his coat and walked away, leaving five unconscious guys on the floor.

Then he took note of his batteries, and paused in surprise. Drained to half already? It had been full last time he checked, and he hadn't been using too much, so it should have recovered completely, shouldn't it?

Oh. His encounter with the Walrider. Probably drained his batteries more than he realized. Another reason why he should avoid it.

With a sigh, he slid off the shoulders of his coat and popped open the battery port on his left arm to pull the spend energy cell out and plug in a fresh one.

_I really should have brought along a few more batteries_ , he thought grimly. But who would have expected that a simple extraction would end up like this shit show he stumbled in?

...Right. Experience should have taught him as much.

With a shake of his head he continued walking through the basement, passing a morgue and various lounge rooms, until he heard the PA cackle when he entered a kitchen area.  _“Who's down there? You aren't one of them, are you? Quick, climb into the dumbwaiter and I'll get you up here.”_

Adam frowned at the tiny dumbwaiter. “I'm afraid I won't fit”, he pointed out.  _Smells too much like a trap._ “I'm good as it is, these guys won't hurt me.”

“ _You- there's no other way.”_

“I've seen a pair of stairs on the way here.”

“ _Yes, but it's locked. They took the keys, man.”_

“I'll risk it. Thanks for the offer.” A part of him already doubted Park's presence here, but it wouldn't hurt to take a look around. He headed back outside of the kitchen, walked down a hallway, and found the stairwell that led into the living complex of the Male Ward. The mesh door was really locked, but that was a simple question of throwing a single punch.

Reaching the top of the staircase was a easy, and he even checked with Smart Vision for any armed inmates. He didn't see any, just one clinging to an IV stand, and stepped out of the stair well.

_SPLANG_

He stumbled from the force of the impact, and his nerves started screaming. Adam just blinked in confusion, straightened his back and turned around, frowning at the inmate with the IV stand. The IV stand that had a suspicious dent at the top.

“Did you...did you just hit me over the head with that thing?” He asked in confusion. He already knew the answer, but he had to hear it because it was just so... _weird_. 

The inmate was frozen too, the mask he was wearing was hiding his facial expression, but he could tell the man was baffled himself. “Uhm. Buddy? Didn't know you were a clank. Uh- It's not what it looks like-”

Adam didn't let him continue talking, just threw a punch and the guy dropped to the floor. Another inmate? Looked that way, but he could also tell that this man was a whole different level of insane. Because he'd been lucid enough to use the dumbwaiter, and he'd been crafty enough to construct a trap and although failing it, was still clever enough to figure out where he was going to be. Additionally, his speech was completely free of any ticks, and he recognized him as augmented- something none of the others had done so far.

This guy wasn't insane- he was either a psychopath, or a sociopath. Adam actually tended to the first one, though this place left its traces on the man's body.

Like the twins, he too was naked, though was wearing a sort of surgeon's apron on his leathery skin, and half of a surgical mask. His eyes were hidden behind a pair of safety goggles, that seemed to be...grafted to his head? His whole body was skinny and covered in surgical scars, and surgical tubing were sticking out of his arm like external blood vessels.

And those definitely looked self-inflicted. Not the first time he'd seen somebody mutilate themselves, but this level was different to Walker's torn off lips and nose. It was a lot more...deliberate.

_What the Hell have they been doing here with their patients?_ Adam shook his head and started walking away from the inmate, passed through a derelict kitchen and down a damaged hallway. Surprisingly, there was only little blood or body parts, almost as if somebody kept order around here. 

He found an elevator just across from the exit to the courtyard, and considered it for a short moment. He didn't like rickety elevators such as this, and he certainly didn't like rickety elevators in derelict asylums full of crazed inmates who tried to kill him, so once he stepped inside, he opened the ceiling hatch and climbed through to get to the second level above.

Once he pulled himself up into the landing, he grimaced. Yeah, here it looked much more like the madhouse he'd started to get to know. There was blood on the tiled floor, and tracks that ran through it. Two large wheels on either side, two smaller to the front. A wheelchair?

Adam paused, eyebrows furrowing when he heard voices from the dark. “Kill...me”, then screams from the left. A quick glance showed him a man strapped to a bed, thrashing for all it was worth. Adam's blades snapped out of his wrists, and he easily sliced the bindings apart without even considering the consequences. The inmate gargled and screeched, and ran off into the dark on unsteady feet without a word of thanks.

Couldn't do so, either, because his tongue was gone anyways. Self-inflicted mutilation? Accident earlier? Medical malpractice here in the asylum?

He didn't know, just let the man go and continued following the blood trail, and closing in on the hoarse voice begging.

...The trail led into a restroom. Filled with body parts, drenched in blood. Adam grimaced and still looked around when his retinal prostheses pointed out various pieces all around. It was like a LIMB clinic from Hell, with all the discarded human tissues just put into various piles. One pile were limbs, fingers mostly. One looked like internal organs, or pieces of the same.

It didn't look like it was the work of the doctors, however. More like the work of the inmates in themselves.

He breathed deeply to try and center himself, and left the restroom to head into a large open room that looked like it had once been a recreational area. But all the gaming stations had been pushed away and instead there were various hospital beds around. Lazaret-like.

“Who's there?” A voice questioned from the dark. “Is somebody there?” There was a deep rattle, like inhaling with damaged lungs. “Please, come closer.” It wasn't the voice of that inmate. Adam hesitated briefly, and switched to Smart Vision. The only person who could have heard him was one figure in the next room, draped on a hospital bed. Head in a sling, leg elevated. Not a threat, especially since his systems couldn't pick up any weapons either.

He looked around once more, and stepped through the door. The room beyond was badly illuminated, except for the large lamp right above the hospital bed in the middle.

The figure tied to the bed could hardly be called human anymore.

Nose and ears and eyelids were gone, lips barely recognizable. Huge upper lift cleft, looked a lot like deliberate damage. One eye was swollen shut from the tumor growing out of the skull. Left arm and leg coated with more tumors. Two v-shaped surgical scars across the collar bones and the hips. More scars running down the length of stomach and limbs. Genitals gone.

Adam grimaced. The man laughed dryly.

“I know what I look like. Was too stubborn to die when they threw me to the doc.”

“Who are you?”

The man grinned. “Langin. I'm not a patient, no matter what it looks like now.” He cackled a wheezing laugh. “Used to be a executive, until I started getting too expensive. Like him. Like Trager.”

“Trager?” Adam's eyes narrowed. “I heard that name before.”

The man wheezed again. “Yup. He used to be one of us. But Jeremy figured he'd make a nice addition to the Engine. Should've know he'd come out crazier than he got in. All of these braindead morons did.”

“The inmates”, Adam blinked, then bared his teeth once it settled. “What was the purpose of this Engine? What is Project Walrider?” 

“Something that would have made all of us filthy rich”, the man confirmed. “No idea what it was though. I just punched the numbers into my calculator, and my calculator made a happy face.”

“And that is what you were doing this for? For profit? God, you _tortured_ helpless people!”

“Hardly helpless, if you've seen all the shit they've been doing.”

Adam crashed his hands against the bed railing, looming over the man. “I've  _seen_ the files”, he hissed. “I know that people like Walker only turned worse after they were admitted here. Your 'therapy' is what drove these people mad!”

“Wernicke's pet project.” The man snorted. “Worked too well. We couldn't control it. But it means we're on the right path. Just need to learn how to control it.”

“By killing even more innocent people.” Adam stepped back. “I've seen the asylum. I've seen all the bodies. It's all on your hands. Murkoff will pay.”

“You can't stop us, clank”, Langin countered. “Murkoff's too big for you. And who's going to believe you anyways?”

“I know a few people.” Adam pulled his Interpol ID from his pocket, showing it to him. “Interpol will probably listen to their top agent, too. Also...” He stepped back to the front and pulled back his shields to allow the man see his augmented eyes. “I have been recording everything since I stepped foot in this place. I took all files. All data. Murkoff is done.”

With a rustle of his coat, Adam stepped away and walked back into the dark, ignoring Langin's screams behind him. What this man had done, he deserved what he'd gotten in the end.

Trager. That was the name of the inmate who tried to ambush him. He was one of the executives of this place. Got eaten up completely and spat back out as a mad shell of his former self. The mad and dangerous shell that mutilated other people in a grand delusion of being a surgeon.

It was this place. The pain and terror that had bled into the walls across the centuries, fed by greed. He grit his teeth hard. He was going to  _enjoy_ tearing it all apart.

Where was Park? Adam started sprinting, checking each and every of the captive inmates to find the IT expert.  _Please. I want to be free._ He hated seeing the inmates like that, hated that he didn't have any time to end their suffering. A quick death was more merciful than what they were having here, but he couldn't slow down and help them.

He felt immensely guilty once he finished with his lap around the upper levels. He hadn't seen anybody who even remotely looked like Park.

Then he heard a voice calling out for him. His lips curled away in a grim snarl. Perfect, just who he'd been waiting for.

Adam turned and simply waited until Trager came running into the room, stopping the moment he noticed the agent. He was holding a large pair of bone shears, looking nonchalant. “Buddy! I've been looking for you. You know, it's not right to run off like that. We couldn't even have a civilized discussion.”

Adam snorted. “No, thank you. I've been gutted once and I'm not going to repeat it.”

Trager eyed him. “Yeah, I can guess. Nice work on the chassis, buddy. You know, I could try to fix you.”

“Like you fixed these poor souls around here?” He shook his head. “I talked to Langin. He told me you've been part of Murkoff.”

“Oh yes. Long time ago, and I don't like he's gossiping behind my back. Were good times, though. Jer made sure his buddy Rick had everything he needs. Like electro shock therapy. Morphogenic Therapy. Cutting and sewing. Swell guy.” He exhaled dreamily. “Would have probably been something for you, eh? Just sit back, relax, and let others dig around your noggin'.” 

“Did you help Waylon Park relax too?”

“Park?” Trager actually looked surprised. “That little office whore? No, no. Didn't get the chance. Had reserved a special treatment for him, but no.”

“So you have seen him.”

“Yes, yes. Ran across the yard to the Vocational Block, I'd wager. Would probably run into my colleague along the way.”

“Colleague?”

“Gluskin. Nice guy. Domestic surgery. Has all the right kinds of enthusiasm but is sadly lacking the soft touch I have. Figured I'd offer my help, though. Poor guy's all worked up about this.”

Vocational Block. Right next to the male ward, just connected with a few locked doors.

He was done here. Adam turned to go, but Trager cleared his throat. “You still ran off, and you didn't even get an examination, buddy.”

He grinned to himself. He was  _nearly_ done here. He turned slightly. “Oh?”

Trager lunged at him with the bone shears. Adam whirled on his heel and threw his hand out, snatching the shears by the blades. They made an ungodly metallic screech on his fingers, and he was pretty sure there were going to be scratches on them, but that didn't stop or even deter him. Grabbing Trager's wrist with the other hand, Adam pulled the man closer for the short moment he needed to release his blade through the elbow. With a quick smirk, he wrenched his arm, and the doctor with it, over his shoulder and sliced the blade through the man's throat, then pushed him back and threw his other arm up like he was doing an uppercut and ripped the blade from his other elbow through Trager's chest.

The crazed doctor dropped back dead, eyes still wide in surprise. Adam simply pulled his blades back, crushed the bone shears and walked away. He found a stairwell and broke down the door that blocked his way to get back to the ground level.

He was done with subtlety.

The stairwell led to another hallway, and when he followed it he spotted the priest just behind another locked door with a glass window. “Thank God”, the man exhaled. “I thought that wretched soul had carved you up like the others.”

“Others had been faster”, Adam replied deadpan. “But I figured out where the man went I'm looking for. Perhaps you've seen him? His name is Waylon Park. Blonde hair, wears an inmate's uniform. Possibly has a camcorder.”

The Priest furrowed his brows before his expression brightened. “I did. Indeed I did. He too witnessed His glory, and it was His Will he carried His message out of this place.”

“Good. Because apparently he's in the vocational block. Trager mentioned somebody named Gluskin-”

“The Groom” The priest seemed _terrified_ at the idea. “Oh no. Please, Apostle, you need to hurry! The Giant is mislead, but can be reasoned with. But the Groom is the Devil himself.”

Adam's head snapped up. If the priest thought that a person opposing a ghost that tore people apart was  _bad_ , then things were  _really bad_ . He grabbed the door frame, crushed the wood beneath his palms as he yanked the obstacle clear out of his way. “Where is the exit?”

Martin only nodded, entirely nonplussed by his strength. “Come” He hurried to the front with Adam directly behind him, vanishing into the dark.

Only, it wasn't darkness, he noticed. It was  _smoke_ . The priest was clearly visible once he switched to Smart Vision, waving at him as they made their way through the smoke filled hallways. The smoke soon became replaced by flames when they entered the cafeteria. Father Martin stopped briefly next to an inmate sitting in on a table to talk to him in a low voice. 

Adam eyed him, barely feeling the heat of the flames around. The inmate had a massive burn across the right side of his head, and his dark hair was short.

“I had to burn it”, the man muttered. “All of it. Murkoff has taken so much from us. Used us. Turned us into those things and nobody cared because we are just a few lunatics.” He shook his head. “It's better to let everything burn. Burn it all. You can get out through the kitchen.”

“Thank you” 

He blinked. “You're not trying to stop me? Everybody else tried to stop me.”

Adam inclined his head. “Why? I get what you mean. This place doesn't deserve to continue to exist. Not with all the atrocities that had been committed here. You're right if you want to let it burn.”

“The Lord is with you, my son”, the priest added. “And He will welcome you in His embrace.”

As they left the burning cafeteria behind, the old man gestured towards a blocked door that was somewhat hidden from the main hallway. “This is the entrance to the vocational block. It is locked, however I doubt it will be a problem for you.”

“It won't” Adam stepped towards the door and pulled slightly at the handle.

The priest nodded. “Please hurry. I do not know what the devil would do to His messenger, but I fear the worst. You need to save him.”

“You don't have to tell me twice.” He broke down the door and walked straight through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Looking at this part of the game on Youtube was actually painful to watch if all games you play before include the ability to easily take down a bunch of guys trying to ruin your day. I was yelling at Miles that he should please pick up a piece of wood, or that damn fire extinguisher there and just clobber these idiot inmates over the head please, you stupid dumbass.
> 
> Also, Trager's dead. Asshole deserved it.


	6. Savior

The hallway beyond the door was like any of the other hallways. Crumbling linoleum, peeling wall paint, rusted radiators. An iron mesh door blocked the way. Adam easily broke it open and stepped through. He didn't spot anybody around, and headed left first. The blueprints he found said there was a gym here. Might as well start there.

Something blocked the door, however. Adam snorted and stepped back, lifting his foot to kick the obstacle down in a splinter of wood.

There were body parts on the floor. Mostly heads, but also a few other limbs. And stains of blood. Adam furrowed his brows and knelt down to inspect the blood. Looked...like it had dripped down. From some height, too.

He lifted his head-

And swore under his breath in surprise.

Corpses were hanging from the ceiling. Fifty at least. Some feet first, some head first. All had sacks drawn over their heads, and their bodies just seemed...wrong.

Adam got to his feet and squinted, focusing on image enhancement to get a closer look- and continued swearing in a more subdued tone.

The bodies were naked and male, but the genitals were  _gone_ . Removed, as wide gaping scars suggested, and the chest area was formed into breasts. Smart Vision said that there was textile inside the tissues, not silicone like a real surgeon would have done.

_Gluskin. Nice guy. Domestic surgery. Has all the right kinds of enthusiasm but is sadly lacking the soft touch I have. Figured I'd offer my help, though. Poor guy's all worked up about this._

This was what Trager meant. This Gluskin tried to turn men into women? What for?

_And Park's supposed to be here. God, I hope I'm not too late._

Adam spun on his heel and dashed right out of the gym, running down the hallways. He stumbled into a classroom of sorts, decorated like a chapel, with another corpse dressed in a wedding gown at the 'altar'.

So this was what Gluskin was doing, making a  _bride_ ?

Wait.

Wait.

Gluskin?

Adam's eyes widened and he breathed a single 'fuck'.

Smart Vision came on as he raced along the hallways, barreled through a kitchen and vaulted across sturdier obstacles. A door leading to a crafts room was splintered under the force of his impact, and desks flew to the side when he tackled into them.

He reeled his fist back and broke down a wall, barely slowing down in the process, but stopped dead in his tracks once he got through the opening. There was a bloody table-mounted circular saw, old rags and wire strewn about. Exactly the same materials he'd seen on the mutilated corpses.

The radio was running, playing  _I want a Girl_ . Adam grit his teeth and checked the area again. His Smart Vision had a secure range of several dozen yards, even with penetrating walls, and his hearing would increase in effectiveness along with his sight. 

He heard the heavy impact of a body somewhere, and his head snapped around to witness a figure at the bottom of an elevator shaft several rooms to the left. Another was at the top, pressing the button to call the elevator up. The first hobbled out through an open doorway, and the second vanished too.

Adam switched off the Smart Vision and started running towards them.

Debris blocked his way, and any path around would take too long. The second figure closed in on the first, who ran themselves into a dead end.

The second also showed the signs of the Morphogenic Engine, having particles of metal all over their body.

One of the inmates. The other was clean.

_Park_

Adam shattered an observation window, ignored the wedding gowns nearby, and broke down a wall to gain access to the crawlspace inside. He dashed along the narrow passageway, eyes fixed on the two figures he could spy through the brick.

The second had finally closed in on the first one. Adam didn't even know whether it was Park, or whether it was one of the guards, or even the executives, but he didn't really care. All he knew was that this inmate was the only living one nearby, and that he was the one who mutilated the other men.

He'd seen enough death. If he could save just one man, he was going to do it.

He reeled his arm back and smashed it into the ancient brickwork. Stones crumbled under the impact like wet paper, and Adam forced his way through the dust and rubble in one swift motion. He collided with the inmate with enough force to overbalance him. The inmate toppled to the floor, with Adam on top of him. His metal knee crashed into the inmate's guts to prevent him from getting up. Still the man screamed at him, spat swears and insults as he tried to pull a knife free. Adam slapped it out of his hand, breaking the bones in the process, as he slammed his palm flat against the man's throat to pin him further when his blade slid out of his free wrist. He stabbed it down in one brutal thrust, cutting through sternum, heart and aorta in one motion to kill the man in an instant.

Air wheezed out of lungs in one last exhale and the body went slack beneath him. Adam stood and pulled the blade back, turning to face the terrified man in the corner. The man's head snapped up, eyes blown wide in panic as they settled on him. The camcorder in his hand was running.

His heart skipped briefly when he recognized the face, and his shields slid back into his temples. “Mr Park? My name's Adam Jensen, I'm with Interpol. I'm here to get you out.”

* * *

Park's pulse was all over the place. Adam's systems picked up elevated blood pressure, increase in adrenaline, dehydration, low blood sugar- even without the CASIE.

He didn't question why that man reeled back in terror. Sadly, he didn't have much time- they needed to get out of this place, and fast.

“Mr Park”, he began again. “I know you are afraid, and I know I am a stranger to you. But we can't stay here, and you need medical attention.”

“Medical-” the man grit his teeth. “I-”

“I know this is hard for you.” He slowly held out his hand, never breaking eye contact with the man. “Please, you need to trust me.”

Park's eyes flitted back to the dead man on the floor, and the heavily augmented man in front of him. Then his expression twitched slightly, and Adam could see the gears start moving inside his head. The realization that Adam could have killed him at a moment's notice if he really wanted to.

The man swayed on his feet and suddenly collapsed. Adam was there within the blink of an eye, catching him. He carefully took the camcorder, and switched it off. “It's okay. I got you.” He checked the area again with Smart Vision, discovering a bathroom a bit down the hall. He just had to break down another door to reach it, and quickly discovered that it too, was locked.

As such, it was still in pristine condition, and as a small bonus, there was also a first aid kit attached to the wall next to the mirror above the sink, where he put the camcorder for now.

Park was shaking from what Adam suspected was low blood sugar, so the first thing he did was rummage around his pocket to find that candy bar he nicked off Mac's desk when he left, to hand it over.

“Who are you?” Park asked, taking his attention. 

“I told you. Interpol. Adam Jensen”, Adam repeated. 

“Why are you here?”

He inclined his head, finding a rag he wet down. “The e-mail you wrote, Miles Upshur got it. He went to friends of mine, and they called me.”

Park blinked, color returning to his face. “Does  _Interpol_ know you're here?”

Adam actually grimaced at that. “Not  _yet_ , but I trust my boss to forgive me once I take all the evidence of this place to him.” He glanced at the camcorder briefly. “I believe you were thinking the same.”

“...Yes. I will...I will destroy Murkoff. I have to get out of here so I can do it. I have to survive.”

Adam nodded. “Was thinking the same.” He threw the man the rag. “Here, clean your wounds. We have to bandage them to prevent gangrene.”

Park quickly got to work, and Adam watched him.

“How long have you been here?”

“Days? Weeks? No idea. Kept blacking out, and my head's full of static”, the man replied with a groan. 

“I have seen the files in the Morphogenic Therapy room. They tortured you, didn't they?”

“Jeremy Blaire”, Park growled darkly. “He did this to protect his profit. Can you believe this? They torture people in the name of _profit_.”

“I can believe it”, Adam replied with a sigh. “But they won't get away this time. Trust me on this.” He watched how Park bandaged up his feet, and treated the gaping wound on his right ankle.

Park blinked in surprise when the agent dropped his boots down in front of him. “Here. Put those on”, Adam told him. Then grinned and wiggled his metal toes. “I don't really need them and you shouldn't step in even more glass.”

“...Thanks” Park still seemed suspicious, but took the boots anyways and put them on. Adam then briefly left, found an office room of sorts just across the hallway, and shattered the closest chair to retrieve two of the chair legs. “Splints”, he declared when he returned and noticed Park's confused expression. “Should keep your leg together until we can get you some real help.”

It took another few moments to secure everything, though once they had, Park managed to limp along without any help. Adam pulled off his coat and dropped it around his shoulders, grimacing and apologizing himself that there was blood on it.

“Why?”

“Some nutcase attacked me with a hand saw”, the agent shrugged. Park stiffened in terror. “The cannibal. I know you've met him too”, Adam confirmed. “Don't worry, I killed him.”

“Like...like you killed... _him_?”

“Exactly”

Park glanced back. “I've seen him before. Before everything happened. He begged me to save him. I think I felt sorry.”

“You don't have to”, Adam growled. “This man- his name is Edward 'Eddie' Gluskin. He might appear charming, but he's a psychopath.”

“He...is?”

“Worst kind. Murdered and mutilated several women. When he hit Detroit, we used one of our cops to lure him out. I personally held him down while she cuffed him.” He grit his teeth. “I should have just shot him back then.”

“But I thought- I thought he was just another victim of this place?”

Adam shook his head. “No. I know of his past, and what he'd done was all his own choice.  _He_ decided to murder helpless women. Nobody told him to do so. The asylum just made it  _worse_ .”

“And you put an end to it”, Park muttered.

“Once we are out of here, you will help too”, Adam added with a pointed glare at the camcorder that continued to record. Park nodded, hugging the device to his chest and looked around. “How do we get out of here?”

“Through the Courtyard”, Adam stopped for a moment. “There's a guard I told to hide. I want to get him out too.”

“So we have to- get back inside?”

“Only into the prison wing, and if you want to, I can take you outside first.”

Park blinked, then shook his head. “No. I can't go. We have to stop the engine first.”

“The engine?” Adam eyed the man. “The Morphogenic Engine?”

“I programmed it”, Park confirmed. “I know where it is. I can shut it down.”

The agent furrowed his brows. “The EMP shielding too”, he decided.

“Yes”, Park agreed. “They're tied together. You shut one down, the other will follow. Money pinching on that one, Murkoff never bothered to decouple the two systems.” He frowned. “Actually, the engine is the main source of the shield. The Engine needs to go.”

Adam nodded. “Will be doable. Any security I should know about?”

“Only the MHS, but I doubt they're still alive.”

“What about the Walrider?”

Park's head snapped up, eyes wide. “The- Walrider? Don't know what you mean-”

Adam sighed. “You can drop the act. I know it's connected to the Engine, and as such, to you. It also as something to do with one Doctor Wernicke, who's supposed to have died two decades ago.”

Park deflated visibly. “I was only supposed to keep things running, you know? But what I've seen...it looked a lot like a link between an organic computing matrix and a electrical side. Like...” He frowned. “Like the Biochips in augmented people, such as yourself, but far more sophisticated.”

_Water pressure normal. Who am I? I feel cold. Where am I? Let me go. Core temperature stable. Stop the signal._ Adam grimaced and shook his head. “The Walrider- it's some form of technological weapon, correct?”

“Something of the sorts. But...I don't know. It seems...curious, in a way.” Park frowned again. “I've seen it a few times, and it never harmed me.”

“Like me then. Just...it doesn't seem to play nice with my systems”, Adam admitted. He stepped back. “You ready? I'd like to leave this place as quickly as possible.”

Park huffed out, and it sounded both exhausted and relieved. “Me too. Can't wait to see Lisa and the boys again.”

Adam remembered the pictures on Murkoff's computers, and swallowed the words he wanted to say. Park needed to focus first on getting them to the Engine, then he could worry about his family. Instead, he cleared his throat. “How do we get to the Engine?”

“There's a sub-level basement”, Park explained as he limped besides the agent, though the splints and the boots he now wore made him move much faster than he'd done before. “We can reach it through the elevator in the Administration Block.”

“I've seen the elevator, and there wasn't a sub-basement”, Adam pointed out.

“That's because you'll need a key. There's a hidden keyhole there, and it unlocks the labs below. It's all analog to prevent people from hacking in.”

“Well, shit. And I never paid attention in lockpicking class.”

“That's why we need the key.” Park paused. “No idea where to look, though.”

“Maybe there's a spare key in the CEO's office”, Adam suggested. “Worth a shot.”

He found a door that lead outside. It was locked, but that was hardly a problem. The rain had finally eased up, too, though that meant that a few more inmates were now outside. They still kept their distance, which suited Adam just right. He and Park walked back inside the Prison Block. Park shuddered briefly, but the inmates seemed to actually fear Adam's long black coat that was draped over the engineer's shoulders at the moment, so they didn't dare to come closer.

“Is it possible you beat up a few of these guys?”

“I did”, the agent confirmed. “To be fair, it were only a few men, and I kind of blew up that giant guy too. I think this made me the top dog down here.” He shattered a few more locked doors to ease the path, and made his way towards the security room he left the guard in. 

The moment he turned the last corner, he stopped dead in his tracks, eyes wide. The door was broken open. The furniture used as blockade was strewn about, shattered to pieces.

“No” He raced down the hallway, barreling through debris like it wasn't there, and stopped only once he stood inside the room.

There was so much blood.

Adam swallowed, looking for the guard's body. Looked like a rat after a terrier was done with it. Bitten down and shaken to death, with limbs and skin torn off. The head was propped up on the shattered remains of the surveillance gear with the pill bottle crammed into the open mouth.

Park stepped up to him gingerly, glancing around the bloody room. His camera was running. “Friend of yours?” He asked quietly as he carefully recorded the room.

Adam's shields snapped across his eyes. “No” He growled. Then a little softer “I didn't even know his name. I told him it would be safe here.”

“Nowhere is safe”, Park muttered, then, under his breath, mumbled his wife's name. Adam felt him stiffen then, and his voice picked up. “Mr Jensen? I think you need to see this.”

He headed over, frowning. The pills and teeth of the guard had been arranged in letters.

_CLANK PIG_

Adam grabbed Park's arm. “We have to get out of here. Now.”

Park stumbled after him. “What- why?!”

He growled. “Walker.”

“Walker?” Park seemed surprised. “Who-”

“Big guy. Stalked me through the complex until I blew him up with a grenade” The agent grit his teeth. “He knew I was going to come back for that guard. That's why he left that message. He's going to wait for me.” He glanced at Park. “You need to leave. Now.”

The engineer only nodded slowly, likely in shock, and followed the agent back through the prison and outside into the courtyard. None of the other inmates engaged them, even those that seemed to look like they wanted.

It was possible they knew Adam was targeted by Walker, and didn't dare engage him out of fear.

It didn't made him as nervous as it should, mostly because that asshole was on his personal shit-list now, and everybody else who'd been on it was either dead, or in prison. First he would try to get Park out of this place, however.

They passed through the exit doors and stepped into the administration block hallway. From his earlier trip with Father Martin Adam knew which way to pick, though kept checking the area with Smart Vision to avoid being jumped. He stopped abruptly with a deep sigh. “Shit”, he grumbled. Park stopped too, eying him. “Is there a problem?”

“Walker is coming here. And there is no way to go around him.” He squinted briefly, ignoring Park's terrified gasp. “Well, there is one, but we have to hurry.”

He dragged the engineer down the hallway, then let go and jumped upwards to latch onto an air duct covering inserted into the ceiling. Further down, a door was broken down when Walker's form pushed through the frame.

“I can't jump that high!”

“You don't need to.” Adam seized Park and just threw him upwards. The man made a surprised squeak, but managed to catch the vent and climb in with his help and quickly scrambled inside with the camera in his hand. The agent threw a glance back towards the giant, who had broken into a mad dash. _Shit, this is going to be too close_. He lunged upwards and clawed the vent walls, with Park reaching for him and helping to pull him in-

A massive hand grasped his ankle and yanked him back. Metal screeched when his fingers tore trenches through the thin metal and he lost his grip completely. His spine and augs whined from the sheer force they were exposed to, and several warning signs flashed in front of his eyes.

_Fuck this_

Adam let go to take the pressure off his body and pushed himself backwards, popping out the blades through his elbows and slamming them hard into Walker's shoulders, sinking them in to the hilt. He must have impaled a lung or two, but if the giant noticed, he didn't show. He did let go of the agent though, and Adam flipped backwards to get some distance.

The place was bad, just a narrow hallway that was maybe eight feet wide and ten tall, and Walker was filling it up nearly completely.

“Mr Jensen!” Park yelled, and Adam saw him and his camera peek out of the vent from behind the giant. 

“I'm fine!” Adam shouted back, “Don't get out of there or you're dead!” Then he had to duck to dodge a wide swing.

“I have to contain it!” Walker howled. “The Walrider will not escape!”

“That's what we're trying to do too!” Adam shouted back, ducking and hopping backwards another few steps as the knuckles on his left hand popped up. “We're trying to destroy it!” He fired all four TESLA charges right at Walker's chest.

The giant swayed back, but remained standing. Adam exhaled angrily. It wasn't that he didn't want to take this guy down permanently for everything he'd done, but he had actually wanted to wait for a better chance. Not this half-assed encounter in a hallway the size of a broom closet.

His Icarus Dash spat golden sparks when he tackled into the man's body and forced him to step back to keep his balance. Walker suddenly twisted and brought his giant hands up to try and grab the agent. Adam pushed off and bounced backwards, and the second he touched ground he dove to the front and rolled right between Walker's legs, then whirled and delivered a powerful mule kick to both the man's knees from behind. Bones shattered under the impact, and Walker reeled to the front, collapsing to the floor with an enraged howl.

He didn't let him recover- if he was this dangerous with a flayed arm and mostly blown up legs, he wasn't going to take chances. He pounced on the giant, dug both knees into his back and spread the fingers of his hand into a pentagram-like shape to seize the man's skull and roughly pull him up. Walker snarled and was about to get himself up in a truly spectacular push-up motion, when Adam thrust the blade of his free arm into the back of his skull, separating the spinal column from the brain stem.

Walker's body froze for a second, and slumped.

Adam waited for another tense moment, then pulled his blade free and slid it back into place, wiping his jaw. “You can come down now, Mr Park. I doubt we need to go the long way anymore.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God, I can't tell you how much I wanted to write this part with Adam killing Gluskin. As bonus, he also got Walker. Good, makes the rest of the way much easier.


	7. A Long Detour

Waylon Park was watching him with awe now (and he was sure he recorded the entire confrontation with his camcorder, too), and every last inmate nearby just got out of Adam's way as they passed by. The asylum-intern gossiping worked fast here, so they just  _knew_ he defeated Chris Walker and as such, left him right alone.

It was refreshing, but still set their nerves on edge. Something was going on, and Adam swore he was hearing static on his infolink the entire time. Maybe it were aftereffects of the Walrider, or the shielding was weakening. He hoped it was the latter, but figured the former was most likely.

At least they could move without any stalker now. Adam was about to take Park outside, when the man shook his head and stepped back. “I can help”, he insisted, “And the worst threat is gone, right? And also...” He fidgeted with his camcorder. “And also- the Engine is the source of all the suffering here. I need to record it, to prove that it is real, you know?”

Adam sighed. “Fine, but you need to listen to me. If I say 'run', you don't ask where, you just get away as fast as possible. Clear?”

“Crystal”

Was about as much as he could have hoped for. But Park had survived this long, he could probably continue doing so even without him around. The engineer also demonstrated that, while he stayed close for safety, he would disappear and start rummaging through the offices on his own to find documents, just as Adam did on his side.

“Can you read German?” Park asked when they reunited outside in the Hallway.

“A little. You?”

“Some”, the engineer admitted, waving a few papers before handing them over. “This document is _old_. 1938 old, to be precise. I think it's about this Wernicke, and the Walrider. It says that Wernicke managed to 'call something from the other side', or something.” He frowned. “I doubt the Walrider is anything supernatural, but what else can it be?”

“I'm pretty sure it's something electronic. Fucks with my systems, for sure.”

“You found a key?”

“No”, Adam grimaced. “At this point I'm nearly ready to just rip a hole through that elevator and drop down the shaft.”

“We wouldn't get _up_ again, however”, Park pointed out baffled.

“That's why I haven't considered it yet.” Adam frowned. “Maybe that priest has it? He seemed to know everything I was going to do.”

“The...priest?” Park was baffled for a moment, until it clicked. “Oh. That old man. Seen him a few times, but he didn't held much interest in me.”

“He told me where you were”, Adam pointed out. “Told me to hurry and save you from Gluskin. I think he actually knows a lot of what's going on here, in his own way.” He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder, pointing down the hall. “And there's a chapel here. Pretty sure that's where he's going to be.”

“There's a chapel?” Park seemed surprised. “Then where's God when you need him?”

“God's dead. Mankind killed him. We have to help ourselves.” Adam turned to walk down the hallway, and Park followed after him towards the main atrium of the Administration Block. The stairs leading up were still locked, and a single inmate stood behind the door, waving frantically at them. He was one of the heavier mutilated ones, but at this point, neither man even batted an eye. 

“Hey, hey, I know you!” The man uttered in what was clearly a stage whisper. He told me you were coming. He told me to tell you if you want to go into the House of God, you need to get the key. It is behind the light.” He looked around briefly. “Yes, behind the light. In the Theater. You need to go there, he said. You need to witness it.” Then he turned and hurried upstairs. 

Park watched him go. “You can break down the door, right?”

“I can. But so far, every time this priest told me to 'witness' something I found another piece of this puzzle.” He cocked his head. “Let's just check this out. I can violate the structures later.”

They walked down the left hallway, ducked to the side into a storage room and climbed up a ladder.

Somewhere, somebody was playing a piano as they headed into the theater room. It looked a lot like the Dvali Theater back in Prague, only smaller, with more blood and dead bodies (at least upon entry).

Then the projector came on, startling both men briefly.

Park had his camera at his eye the very moment a grainy image came to life, and a choppy voice gave a rough summary. Adam noticed the date in special. 27 th December, 1985. Los Alamos, New Mexico. Park made a noise when the image showed the same strange inky Rorschach images he'd seen before. The same Park had been exposed to during the Morphogenic Therapy.

A voice with a distinct German accent began to explain that under the exposure of these pictures and tests, several subjects had died and that the cause of death were brain tumors.

Tumors made of lead. Adam remembered the strange scans he'd been getting from the inmates. Lead? How did it get into the bodies in such amounts? If it had been ingested, through the water maybe, then it would have been around liver and kidneys. Not brain or muscular tissues as he'd seen.

The speaker, likely this Doctor Wernicke, described that the test results from his home country had not been able to be reproduced in America. Because, according to him, the engine needed madness to work.

Madness and Horror Wernicke found in the Nationalsozialist Concentration Camps, but not inside the United States. Adam snorted disbelievingly.

So that was what they were doing here, and why everything looked like it came straight out of a history documentation about the second World War. Murkoff was actively reproducing similar conditions with the only purpose of driving people mad because sane people were incapable of activating the engine. Incapable of activating and using the Walrider.

“It _is_ a weapon”, he muttered. “A weapon controlled subconsciously.” That's what all the remarks about lucid dreaming were about. They needed insane dreamers to control it. Hadn't succeeded.

Until now. Because the Walrider was there, and it was killing people.

“There's somebody inside the engine”, Park gasped in realization.

“There is”, the agent agreed.

“Shit”

“We need to get this key.” Behind the light. Behind the projector? Probably wouldn't matter now that they've seen what the priest wanted them to see. Still, they headed to the back of the room, and Adam briefly left Park behind as he leapt upwards and climbed into the projector room to get the key that sat on the table there.

Then one of the twins broke down the door to look for them. Park inhaled sharply. Adam just stepped to the front and cocked his head, staring at the man long enough until the inmate backed off and freed the way outside with a low growl. He wasn't stupid enough to try and engage the agent. Not after Chris Walker.

The second twin was near the locked door that lead upstairs. Park opened it and stepped through, while Adam watched the twin from the corner of his eye before following. The elevator that could be operated with the key they still needed sat to the side.

Other than that, there was barely anything of interest. One inmate was watching the thunderstorm outside, another was apparently praying to the static on a television set. A few more inmates were praying at what seemed to be their beds, or maybe it were beds they simply took. But unlike the rest of the asylum, here it was rather peaceful and calm.

“Guess Father Martin really took care that nothing happened to his followers”, Adam mused.

Park frowned. “It looks almost unreal.”

Eventually, there was no real way left to follow, so they returned to the first hallway and Adam just broke down the closest barred door. Park snorted suddenly, casually waving his camcorder through the hallways to record the few praying inmates they encountered and the texts on the walls that looked like they were written in blood. “I just realized”, he pointed out with what was definitely amusement, “That without you I'd have to circumvent all these locked doors. Probably climb around outside, in the rain.”

Adam's lips twitched up in a smile. “We can still do that, if you prefer.”

“Nah, better not. Not keen on getting your coat wet.”

The agent was about to reply, when the chapel's bells started ringing. His eyes narrowed just as Park glanced around in surprise. “What? What's going on?”

“No idea. But definitely worth checking out.” 

“Sure is”, Park held his camcorder up and the two started moving along the hallways. They stopped when a single inmate holding a candle blocked their way. To the right were the twins too, on either side of the chapel doors like a pair of acolytes.

Inside the chapel- Adam inhaled sharply. The priest was actually nailed to a large cross, surrounded by wood and almost a dozen inmates mourning. The agent grit his teeth. “What are you doing?”

“My job”, the man gasped, blood pouring from his hands. “You shall escape to tell them. This is your penultimate act as His Witness. The promise of the prophets was always freedom and death. You will watch and record my death and resurrection, and together we will be free. You are no longer in danger. The key is in front of you, use it and see His Glory, and all of us will be free in the end.”

Adam grimaced. Suicide- the guy was actually going to commit suicide by self-immolation. Much like Allison tried to do. And, just like with her, he couldn't allow this- but...wasn't this here different? Allison had been preyed upon by Marchenko and his bosses who managed to talk her into it. Hadn't been much more than actual murder through persuasion. Was why he sent Alex after her to get her out of the Church.

This here was another thing completely- this here was what they perceived as the only way to escape this place.

He could probably stop them within a few seconds, but he also knew that suicide was actually preferable to slowly waste away from starvation and the effects of the Engine.

So neither he nor Park actually moved when the the gas the priest doused himself with caught fire and the man was set ablaze near instantly. He only screamed for a little while and once he fell limp, Adam went to gather the keys from the dais in front of them and walked back outside, pulling the engineer along.

Park winced. “Couldn't you have done anything?”

“I could have. But it was his decision, right? Plus, one breath of that inferno and he was dead anyways. Won't have felt much.” He shook his head. “Pretty sure he was one of the more sane ones out here. All these people would have died sooner or later anyways, and he made sure it was on his terms.” He shook his head.

“We just let it all burn?” Park furrowed his brows. Adam didn't say anything just nodded. The engineer sighed. “I guess it's the best way. The asylum, and Murkoff too. With all the material we have...they won't get away.”

“They won't.” He thought of ShadowChild, and Pritchard, and Samizdat. They were going to get all the data, and they were going to tear Murkoff apart. Once it was out in the dark net, all these atrocities would be known around the world, and nobody would be able to lie about it.

He stopped in front of the elevator downstairs, holding the key in his hand.

“Last chance, Mr Park. You can still get out. The doors can be opened from the security office on the floor level- or you'll climb out of the window in the left-handed wing. There's a scaffolding, and you could manage it.”

Park shook his head. “No. I was part of this, was responsible for the Walrider too. I will help you.”

Adam bowed his head. “Well then. Let's finish this.” He twisted the key in the lock, and the elevator began its descend.

* * *

When the elevator stopped, it stopped at the bottom of the shaft. Some hundred feet beneath the asylum inside a rough concrete hallway. The way after that one was pure white limestone. Reminded Adam a little of the icy halls in GARM, but at least it was warmer down here.

He followed after Park, who knew perfectly well where to go. When he pushed open another door, he froze for a moment.  
Adam did too, but likely for a whole different reason. He recognized the room as the lobby entry he'd seen on the security videos. The blood stains from the unlucky PMCs were already dried.

“Shit, what happened here?” Park questioned, slowly recording the entire room- including the remains of the men behind the divider.

“The Walrider happened”, Adam told him as he went around the reception desk to check the entries. The computer was smashed, the paper unreadable. “Seen it on a security video.”

Park inhaled sharply, and shook his head, then limped to the front as fast as he could. “Come, I'll show you the way.”

They walked through a damaged airlock and through a dark tunnel that was splattered in blood and body parts. Park stopped in front of a locked door and swore. “Shit. Need to get this open.” He paused, frowning. “Unless you can?”

Adam already scanned the door, and shook his head. “I'd need high explosives to get this here open.”

“You could punch through walls?”

“Only if there are structural weaknesses in them. This door is easily two inch solid steel. I would lose my hand rather than get this open.”

Park frowned. “There is a delivery entrance along the back. C'mon.”

He showed the way again, leading them through labs that too were riddled with the remains of people. Adam's attention snapped briefly to a morgue to the side with the coroner spread evenly across one wall, and he walked in there to check the files on the computer, ignoring the body parts submerged in fluids in jars to his left.

Medical files. Autopsy reports. Of inmates who died during the violent Morphogenic Therapy. All of it more proof of what Murkoff had done.

Park limped along the next hallway, and stopped for a long moment as he stared through a safety glass window, an expression of desire and desperation on his face. When Adam stopped next to him, he understood. There was a large underground parking lot, and the large gate was open. Letting in the golden light of the morning sun.

He placed a hand on the engineer's shoulder. “We'll only shut down the project and then we'll leave. You will see your family again. Promise.”

Park smiled wistfully. “Coming from you, I believe it.” He turned and headed through a door with a green light on top. There was another lab there, and Adam glanced at the whiteboard with the remark 'Morphogenic Engine' and formulas beneath. Didn't make sense to him, though Park seemed to understand it better. He briefly leafed through some papers on the desk and turned around with a shake of his head. “Hoped we'd find out who the Walrider is at the moment. But we don't, so...let's just keep going.”

They walked further down the hallway, turned at two corners-

An alarm signal started to blare.

Glitches ran briefly across Adam's field of vision, and without thinking he grabbed Park and yanked him back, threw him across his shoulders and just started  _running_ .

Black smoke chased after them, racing over obstacles with ease.

“What is--!” Park choked off. “The Walrider?!”

“And it looks pissed off!” Adam shouted over the howl of the alarm and the thudding of his own feet. His vision was blurry, but thankfully, his jury-rigged security seemed to keep the worst of the Walrider's influence away from him. 

“What are you doing?!”

“Getting some distance!” Adam vaulted across another obstacle, then suddenly stopped with screeching feet and whirled on his heels to yank an EMP grenade free. He spiked it into the ground the second the Walrider got close, and the brilliant blue sparks of the explosion tore the cloud right apart. He thought he could hear it screech, and he saw black ash explode into every direction. 

He didn't wait, just turned sharply and dashed down the hallway. Park was yelling again, then screamed warnings the moment the glitches returned and Adam swore under his breath. An EMP grenade only stopped this thing for a short moment, but didn't  _stop_ it. 

“The air locks!” Park screeched. Adam sped up more, feeling the thing nip at his heels as he raced towards the air locks the Walrider chased them away from. The door slid open too slowly, but once it was wide enough, he dived inside and the Walrider stopped abruptly when the doors slid shut.

“The spray they use here”, Park gasped once Adam put him on the ground, “Whatever it is, the Walrider doesn't like it.”

“It will be back.”

“It will”, he agreed.

“Then we need to hurry.”

They exited the air lock the next moment and quickly walked down the next hallway, only for a voice to call out to them. “Hello? Could you please come here for a moment?”

A voice with a distinct German Accent. Adam glanced at Park, then headed into an office that was to the side of the hallway. There were bodies too, and a safety glass divider that cut off the hind part from the front.

An old man was across from them, bound to a wheelchair. Adam's Smart Vision came to life and he quickly scanned him, noticing several medical augmentations. Most he didn't even recognize, however, but figured that these were there to keep the old man alive.

“Doctor Wernicke, I presume?”

The man grinned. “Yes. Yes. I know I'm supposed to be dead, and I should be. I'm older than sin, but they needed me.”

“So Murkoff put you back together with augmentations.”

“Not only. Augmentations wouldn't keep me alive like this. No, this is Billy.” He exhaled with a dry rasp. “Billy keeps me alive while everybody around me keeps dying.”

“Billy” Adam's eyes narrowed. He had read that name a few times. “The Walrider? Is he the Walrider?”

Park's eyes were wide, and he watched the confrontation with a frown and his camcorder pressed to his eye.

Wernicke waved him off. “No. No. The Walrider. Is an own being. A swarm of nanotechnology. A technology we had for decades, but couldn't master.”

Nanites.  _That_ was what this thing was. Tiny robots.

Wernicke sighed. “Murkoff found a work-around in my research. Turning the cells in the human body into nano-factories. It's a natural process.”

“The metal remains...” Adam cocked his head. “You injected metals into the people in the vague hopes their bodies would start assembling the nanites? God, Wernicke- this wouldn't work!”

“It didn't. But Murkoff found a way to work around it. Psychosomatic direction. We programmed their brains to have their cells produce the nanites.” He grinned again. “Mind over body.”

“And you used the inmates of an _asylum_ to do this” Adam questioned. “Drove them even madder than they've been before. And you killed a whole lot with this technology.”

Wernicke deflated. “It was wrong. What we did here. We couldn't control it.” He turned to the two of them fully. “You need to stop Billy. You need to take him off life support. Kill him and stop the madness here.”

Adam glanced at Waylon. “We'll do it”, the agent growled gruffly, then turned and walked out, dragging Park with him. Once they were out of earshot, he turned to his companion. “You got all this?”

“I did”, the other agreed, then furrowed his brows. “What was that about the Walrider being an own entity?”

“Pretty sure that's his opinion. But this thing, it is a swarm of nanites. As long they don't have a central processing unit, they won't be able to form a solid swarm or do anything the Walrider had done.” He grit his teeth. “I think it is _Billy_ who is the Walrider. Subconsciously. Dreaming. He directs this thing. He left Wernicke alive for some reason, and attacked us only now when we triggered the alarm. Not before.”

“So...we have to kill him?”

“It's the only way. It would be mercy.”

Then his systems glitched slightly again. “Ah, shit.”

Park swallowed. “Next airlock is down this hallway”, he hissed. “Two hundred yards maybe, second floor.”

Adam grabbed the man again and just  _ran_ , tore down the limestone hallways while the swarm chased after him, and vaulted over barrels. One caught his eyes, and he yanked his pistol free to fire at the container. It erupted with a hiss of supercooled nitrogen, and the swarm stopped abruptly. Too cold to keep its function up, bought them more time. 

The airlock was across from them, and Adam dived inside, catching his breath when he dropped Waylon again. “How much further?”

“We should reach the main chamber soon”, the engineer panted. “Not sure how much longer you can keep this up”, he added with a grimace.

“The entire day if I have to”, Adam pointed out gruffly, and pulled the man to his feet as soon the door slid open. They stepped out of the airlock to walk through a thoroughly thrashed security office. A large door at the other end slid open slowly. 

A massive machine was in front of them, just split off through a glass divider and several computers. Like HYRON, towering over them.

“How do we switch this thing off?” Adam questioned. Park limped quickly to the computer array and tapped in a few orders. “Life support and generator”, he declared a few moments later. “Generator also powers the shielding here.” He cut himself off and grimaced. “Shit. If both are off, the emergency failsafe system will kick in. It needs to be shut off too- and unlike the generator, it can't be done remotely.”

“Then I will do this”, Adam decided. He pulled his last two EMP grenades from his pocket and handed them over. “No matter what happens to me, you get _out_ , you understand? If the Walrider gets too close, fry it, then run.”

Park eyed the grenades, then turned to him. “What about you? If you do this, this thing's going to be furious.”

“I already died two times. Maybe third time's the charm”, the agent replied with a grimace. “You have a family you need to go back to. I'm just a machine.”

Park grunted, eyes dark. “You're not. You're way more human than any of these people here, Mr Jensen.”

Adam smiled a little. “Thanks.” He bowed his head. “However I was being serious. Just get out if things go south.”

“I...I will.”

“Good” He cracked his knuckles. “Let's do it.” He jogged out of the office room and headed to the big machine. There were several glass pods around it, but only one was occupied. A man, not more than twenty-five, but the engine had left its traces on his body. Looked too old, too worn. He was hooked up to countless tubes running in and out of his body, staring at a large screen that continued showing the therapy video. Adam slid a Nanoblade free and fired it at the screen to shatter it- if this was the source of the swarm, destroying it would probably weaken Billy's link to it.

He glanced back at the man in the pod and set his jaw. Poor soul- killing him would be a mercy.

The life support was down a hallway to the right. Adam jogged along the area, keeping an eye out with Smart Vision for the Walrider. So far, he couldn't see it, but that bastard  _was_ quick. He shook his head and switched back to normal mode, throwing another set of doors open as he stepped through into a large room filled with tanks that contained a clear liquid.

A valve was just across from the control office. Adam approached it, gripped it hard, and twisted it shut.

An invisible force suddenly seized him, and all his systems cried out in alarm as the Walrider grabbed his body and threw him against the railings and floor. Adam hissed in shock and pain, threw up his legs and arms to protect his face when the Walrider crashed into him with the force of a Boxguard unit.

He snarled and the TITAN came to life, swallowing the next blow, but not the kinetic energy, so he found himself flung through the air and into one of the tanks. The tank shattered under the impact and the TITAN fizzled off before it could drain his batteries. Adam instantly scrambled to his feet and kicked off the ground, racing back outside with the swarm hot on his heels.

It suddenly stopped and screeched the second they reached the engine room, and altered its course as it rushed towards Park.

Blue light erupted from the office building in that second, and Adam drew his gun, firing at Billy's pod several times to draw attention. “I'M THE ONE YOU WANT!” He hollered, and the swarm lunged at him again.

He dodged to the side, keeping the thing busy by alternating between firing at Billy's pod and ripping electrical cables from the floor to create large fields of inductive areas that kept the Walrider well off his ass.

Then the power died and the swarm screamed.

Adam raced towards the failsafe controls, but the Rider cut him off, crashing into him again.

He tasted blood from the impact, ducked behind his arms as the swarm tore at his body like a twister made of teeth.

_Typhoon active. Lethal rounds loaded._

The world around him exploded in a brilliant spectacle of red and orange. The shockwave tore apart the swarm too, and cracked the protective glass of the life support pod. Adam instantly spun and fired a superheated Nanoblade at the dome, shattering it and snuffing out the life within.

The Walrider screeched and lunged at him again, throwing him across the room in a desperate attempt to kill him. Adam curled up, swearing under his breath as he forced the TITAN back up and rerouted all available power into keeping it upright. The swarm shrieked in despair as Billy died, flailing and hitting him into the engine and the walls over and over and over again. Adam's batteries petered out way before the Walrider did, and the next hits he took went right through his armor and bit into his tissues.

The engine exploded, too damaged from the repeated abuse, and his world simply ceased to exist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big Bad got taken down! Yay!  
> Our Protagonist too, though. Less yay.


	8. Loose Ends

“\--sen--”

_Warning. Energy levels low._

“M--Je-en”

_Warning. Energy reserves depleted._

“\---Jen-”

_Warning. Recharge batteries immediately._

“O--or--lov-”

_War---batteries recharging. Please standby. Systems will be rebooted._

Adam groaned and blinked his eyes open sluggishly. The shape above him shifted, but he couldn't really focus on it. Took a few moments for his vision to settle. He pulled his brows down slightly and grimaced. “Mr Park? I thought I told you to get away?”

“You did. But I have never been so good at following orders.” The engineer seemed relieved and worried at the same time. “You took quite a beating. Howe are you feeling?”

“Sore. Going to feel that in the morning.”

Park winced. “It  _is_ morning.”

“Oh” Adam's gaze slid down to the object held in Park's hand. It was an energy cell. An empty one, he would guess. “Is that one of mine?”

“It is”, the other confirmed. “Uh, thought that you probably have a Sentinel, and that yours is a bit hard pressed to get you back up and running, and you had a bunch of energy cells on you, so...” He trailed off with a shrug. “Some of my co-workers used to be augmented. Not many with Sarif tech, but I kind of knew where to look for the port.”

“...Thanks.” He glanced around and switched the Black Box back on. “What happened?”

“After the Walrider finished throwing you around like a ragdoll?” Park shook his head. “I chucked the EMP grenade at you guys, hoping to get it off you, but guess it must have short-circuited the engine instead. Because it blew up.” He gestured to the trashed observation window. “I ducked under the computers and waited until everything was over. Then I came back out. You were on the floor. I thought you were dead, but you were still breathing somewhat. Found your spare energy cells and figured I could jolt you awake.”

“The Walrider?”

Waylon just nodded over his shoulder towards the corpse of Billy Hope. “He's dead. When the engine blew, the Walrider died too. It's gone. We've won.” Suddenly, he beamed across his entire face. “We  _won_ , Mr Jensen! And we'll show the world what was going on here!” He got up and offered his hand to the agent. Adam huffed in relief and reached out to pull himself up with his help, catching sight of his arm in the process. Metal panels were broken, support structures twisted, and some cables were hanging loose. “My mechanic's going to throw a fit”, he lamented as he carefully climbed to his feet. Systems had taken a hit, but there were no serious damages. Or, at least, no damages that were too debilitating. He was pretty sure he wasn't going to break down walls any time soon, however.

But then his radar came back on, and Adam exhaled in relief. He cleared his throat and pinged Alex. “Hey Alex? I'm done on my side.”

“ _Fucking finally, Jensen!”_ The pilot hissed. _“I was worried sick. Do you know that half the complex is on fire?”_

“I was pretty certain it would have happened at some point. But that's okay. Place like that doesn't deserve to exist.”

Alex was silent for a moment.  _“Shit, man, you okay?”_

“Sore, and I need to pay Koller a visit.”

“ _It's not that, and you know it.”_

“I know, but I'd like to get out of here first.” He glanced at Park. “Also, would you maybe do a short detour? I found Waylon Park, and I will bring him along. He'll need to go to his family.”

“ _Yeah, can do. But you better hurry, 'cuz I got a whole lot of armed trucks heading towards your position on my screen.”_

Adam cocked his head, noticing the large amount of life signs converging on his point. “What do you think are the chances they are friendly?”

“ _Not very high. Get out, I'll keep an eye out for a secure spot to land and will send you the coordinates.”_

“Thanks”

Adam's shields snapped back across his eyes, though the left one was broken and had a large crack in the middle. “Mr Park, I am afraid we'll get company. Get ready, we will need to leave most urgently.”

“...And I doubt these guys are going to be friendly, right?”

“After everything we've seen? Most likely not.” He glanced around. “Is there another way out?”

“Likely, but I don't know where”, Park admitted. “What now?”

“We talk first”, Adam decided. “Leave your camera running, Mr Park.”

Waylon nodded, and Adam started walking. A bit stiffer than he normally would move, because every step sent jolts of agony racing through his body. Sentinel was doing its best to fix him up, but it was a slow process with all the injuries that required fixing, and especially when it were his joints that caused most problems and weren't repairable by Sentinel standards.

Still, he tried to get back to the door without limping too obviously, but the way his legs sparked and twitched and lost pieces of metal paneling meant he wasn't very successful on that front.

Then the door slid open, and Adam had a short moment to notice the group of heavily armed men with Doctor Wernicke at their center.

The first bullet hit his armor, and he swayed back in surprise. More shots cracked in short succession, and several more high-speed projectiles clipped his body. Adam snarled as he spun around to shield Park and his TITAN bubbled up from under his skin to protect them both.

“Take them down!” Wernicke's voice ordered, “They know too much!”

Adam only snarled. He could see his battery drain, and he couldn't do anything about it-

“ _Let me help, Adam”_

The entire complex was suddenly thrown into darkness as the entire energy fizzled off, startling the men.  _“Get away from them. I will keep the doors open for you.”_

“Eliza?!”

“ _Run, Adam.”_

He didn't think, just grabbed Park and did what she told him, using Smart Vision to navigate through the total darkness and get past the blinded men, who were swearing now. Airlocks slid open before them, didn't even went through their usual procedure but rather allowed them passage almost immediately. Waylon made a startled noise, but kept running alongside him.

More men were in the darkness, shouting for backup. Adam tackled into two and knocked them out, plainly visible on infrared, he guessed, because he knew Park was still filming. They passed the security glass leading to the vehicle pool, and his stomach dropped at the sight of dozens of armored cars arriving at the same time. Then his head began buzzing, and black clouds descended on the men out there, tearing their weapons apart and throwing them around to knock them out.

It couldn't be- the Walrider was dead, wasn't it? They killed it along with its host.

Yet it was out there, taking down the PMCs-

They had to get out of there.

His heart was racing like mad inside his ribcage when he reached the elevator. The lift's doors slid open, and the two men lunged inside. Without them even touching the panel, it began its ascent. Adam exhaled and slumped against the back wall, feeling blood pool beneath him from the few bullets that managed to get through his armor. “Shit”

“What _was_ that?!” Park hissed. “Why were they shooting at us?”

“They are trying to cut off loose ends”, Adam grunted, then slid his hand to his ear. “Alex. Change of plan. Get somebody to Park's family _now_. They need to be protected.”

“ _What-?!”_ Alex and Waylon questioned at the same time.

“You heard me. We were just shot at because Murkoff wants to hide their mess. The Park family is in _danger_.”

“ _Shit, on it. Got a pal nearby. He should be enough to get them to get ready.”_

“Good”

“ _Adam”_ , Eliza's voice spoke inside his head. _“I managed to distract Doctor Wernicke and his men, but you need to hurry. Please.”_

“Eliza? Are you-”

“ _Once the shielding was down, I got into their systems. I control this place now, but they won't be stopped for long.”_

“Thanks.” He exhaled, leaning back against the wall.

“What was that about my family?” Waylon demanded to know, his camera shaking in his hand. “Does Murkoff know about them?!”

“They do”, Adam confirmed gruffly. “There were files and pictures of them on one of their computers” He exhaled and ran his palm down his face, voice dropping. “I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner”

Park swallowed thickly. “You had your reasons, right?”

“If you had panicked worrying about your wife and children, you could have gotten killed.”

“They are in good hands now? That friend you called?”

“I trust her.” He climbed to his feet and hit the emergency stop button. “But we still need to hurry.” He reached up and yanked the ceiling hatch right out, motioning for the engineer to follow him. An air vent just above them allowed them to climb their way up, and they emerged just near the elevator, but far away enough so the three men positioned there to shoot them didn't notice them.

They snuck past them easily, the sound of their footsteps masked through the constant thunder of half automatic rifles going off somewhere in the maze of the Asylum. Adam's hand shot out to stop Park the second a pair of inmates ran past their hiding spot, only for both to be gunned down in front of their eyes. Four more PMCs stepped towards the corpses, made crude jokes, and continued their way deeper into the asylum.

“Shit”, Park gasped, camera shaking. “They're just killing all of them.”

“They do. Nobody's going to care about a few inmates in an asylum if they are found dead inside a burned place.” Adam scowled. “Come now, the way outside should be free. Can you run?”

Waylon tested his leg with a little wince. “Not well, but I'm not going to slow you down.”

“Good” They rushed out of their hiding spot and hurried down the hallway towards the atrium.

Before they rounded the corner, however, Adam stopped abruptly. “Someone is in the doorway”, he mumbled, peeking around the corner.

“What?” Waylon looked too, grimacing. “Great, that's Jeremy Blaire.”

“The CEO?”

“Yes. He tried to have me killed. Twice.”

Adam hummed. “How would you feel about nailing this bastard?”

“I would feel, yes.”

He smirked. “Give me the camcorder, I'll record your meeting.” Waylon handed the device over with a confused expression, one that quickly turned sharp the moment Adam grinned at him and faded in a shimmer of gold.

“I see”, the engineer exclaimed in realization, “We'll bury that asshole.”

“We will”, Adam agreed.

Park straightened his shoulders and started walking, one foot before the other, until he stood in front of Blaire. The CEO seemed startled, his eyes nearly bulging from his skull for a moment, before he settled into a grudging acceptance. “So, you are still alive, Park. Color me surprised, didn't think you'd had it in you.”

“No thanks to you”, Waylon commented with a deep frown. “You put me into that engine, and when I got out, you threw me in the way of Walker, hoping he would kill me.”

“What clearly didn't _work_ ”, Blaire spat. “And now you also somehow destroyed our project. Do you know how much of a chore it was, putting this old Nazi in charge and install this blasted engine? And then we figured that we needed _crazies_ to feed the engine with, hoping we get to summon some ghost, or whatever it was.”

“I've seen your work”, Waylon growled, still keeping his distance from the CEO. “Murkoff murdered hundreds here, and what for? _Profit_?”

“Well, we got dozens of generals just waiting to get their hands on Wernicke's pet. Shit like that would have been unstoppable.” He shrugged. “But hey, figures making crazies control an unstoppable murder machine is maybe not the smartest idea. Oh well, back to the drawing board.”

Waylon blinked. “What? You think you can just continue this?”

Blaire snorted. “Of course. Did  _you_ think we will just let you go?” Suddenly, there was a knife in his hands. “Nobody's going to believe you anyways, Park, but I make sure you don't get to talk  _at all_ !”

He lunged at the engineer, but Adam already moved to seize the man's arm and twist it into his back, forcing him to drop the weapon. Blaire still reeled from the sudden attack, and his eyes widened in terror when the agent became visible right behind him, with the camcorder in his other hand, waving almost cheerfully.

“Oh, trust me, _boss_ ”, Waylon gave back, “I won't go out here without any evidence. May I introduce you to agent Jensen too?”

“Interpol”, Adam added, watching with glee how the man's face was drained of color. “And you just assaulted a man with a deadly weapon. So...” He twisted Blaire's arm with enough force to make him spin and face him, letting go in the process. With his hand free now, he delivered a fierce punch to the man's face and knocked him flat on his ass. “You have the right to remain _silent_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cheating Death, escaping exploding facilities, hitting bad guys, delivering a solid One-Liner. All in a day's work for Interpol's best agent.


	9. Seeds sown

They could smell the smoke from the burning chapel and Male Ward, they could still hear the shooting Murkoff employed to kill all last living inmates. They cleaned the area, would kill them too if they found them. Adam and Waylon limped away from the asylum as fast as they could, leaving all those nightmares behind them. They couldn't help the innocent people, but they could stop it from happening ever again. The camera was in Park's hand, finally switched off, and the Blackbox no longer recorded.

“Did you see?” Waylon asked a little breathless as they hurried away from the street and vanished into the underbrush. “The Walrider. It is still alive.”

“I've seen it”, Adam confirmed. “But...how is this possible? Its host is dead.”

“Maybe a form of failsafe?” Waylon grimaced. “Wish I had paid more attention.”

“You couldn't have known what it was about. And anyways, I think it just makes it more urgent that we continue getting away from this place.”

“Think it won't chase after us?”

“Not with all the PMCs around. And I think it actually has a limit how far it can be removed from the engine. It never flew higher than the roofs of the asylum. So it has maybe a safe range of two hundred feet into either direction?”

“Maybe a security feature.”

“Probably. If not”, Adam grimaced, “Then I'd like to be as far away from this thing as possible. I'm not sure I'll withstand a second encounter.” There were an awful lot of red signals all across his screens. They managed to get another few hundred yards away from the street and further into the surrounding forest, when his Infolink pinged and sent him the coordinates for their extraction point. It was maybe one and a half klicks further to the west and along the mountainside. The terrain was hard to navigate, especially with both being as beaten up as they were. 

Once they fought through a particular thorny shrubbery, they found themselves on a larger clearing. Alex's VTOL stood in the middle of it, and the pilot was sitting leaned against her vehicle, pair of binoculars in her hand and a book about birds on her lap. When Adam and Waylon approached, she looked up, and frowned.

“Man, you look like shit.”

“Feel worse, actually”, Adam replied. Alex climbed to her feet, brushed off her pants and frowned at his companion. “That Park? Why the uniform?”

“Ended up on the wrong end of my boss's good graces”, the man explained to her with a grimace. “You are the friend Mr Jensen spoke about, yes?” He shifted his feet, and Alex noticed the boots with a small knowing smirk. “What about my family?”

“Don't worry. I already had picked up a guy and took him there to prepare your folks. He contacted me to let me know that they refuse to leave without their dad.”

Adam frowned. “You already picked him up. Why?”

The pilot snorted. “Because I couldn't contact you, and the place looked really fishy.” She crossed her arms with a huff. “I simply was worried about you, dumbass- and seeing you now, I was right on that front. Anyways, I pinged him, met him, took him along with the idea to just drop him above Mount Massive when your call came. So I had the guys figure out where the Park family lives and just dropped him off there.” She gestured to the back of her bird. “Now get in, strap in, and we'll take off.” She paused briefly. “There should be some food and water in the emergency kit at the side. Help yourselves, you look like you could need it.”

Waylon was more than grateful, if somewhat cautious. When Adam simply walked in and dropped on the seats there, he followed too, took some of the water and energy bars, and simply dug in. Adam just took a sip himself, strapped in- and was asleep before Alex even took off.

He came to when he subconsciously realized that the sound of the engines changed, and when he glanced outside he saw more forest in every direction. Park seemed both excited and nervous as he kept staring to the outside.

Adam grunted and pulled himself upwards, feeling a little better, and a lot more tired. “We there yet?”

“We are”, Waylon confirmed. Adam got up and looked outside too, seeing a house nestled into the forest at the end of a street. There was a large backyard kept free of trees and shrubberies, with some flower beds along the edges. Adam could see one dark figure at the back door, and he could see a Widowmaker in the man's hands. But since Alex didn't show any signs of panic, he assumed that was the friend she had been talking about.

The VTOL set down on the lawn, and Alex shut down the engine for now. When the hatch slid open, Waylon was the first to limp out, but only made it like five steps away from the bird when the attack came. Two boys, both under ten years, tackled into the man with enough force to nearly bowl him over if Adam hadn't stopped his descent with a hand to the back.

Park blinked briefly, then his eyes welled up quickly and he dropped to his knee to give his sons a tight hug, ignoring their questions and their complaints that he smelled bad.

Then a blonde woman raced across the lawn too and joined in on the hug, holding her husband and kissing him like a drowning man. Adam and Alex both stepped back to give them room, then turned towards the other man who approached them.

He was a bit shorter than Adam, but had visibly more muscle mass. Hooked nose, dark hair combed back. Right arm augmented, left natural, augmented legs most likely from the way he was moving, eyeshield ports on either side of his natural eyes. Dark combat vest, light t-shirt beneath, black combat boots, tan colored pants.

Adam inclined his head when recognition set in. “Mr Saxon, right?”

The other man quirked an eyebrow. “That's about correct, Mr Jensen. Alex been talking?”

Adam glanced at the pilot. “She did”  _The guy that got me out of Panama? Most fugly yellow pants I've ever seen._ He nodded over his shoulder. “The Parks?”

“I told them they are likely targeted, but I don't think they believed me. Mrs Park is a little scary, to be honest.” He cocked his head. “Is there anything true about this, however?”

Adam grimaced. “It is. Place was nearly as worse as it was during the Incident. I got thrown around and nearly dismantled, and we were shot at the moment Murkoff became aware of us. So yes. The threat is viable.”

Saxon gave him a critical one-over. “Can guess so. You're not looking good.”

“Nothing my mechanic and a bottle of whiskey won't be able to fix”, Jensen joked.

The other man nodded briefly, then tilted his head when Mrs Park approached them. Her eyes were red and glassy, but there was a spark of determination in them. “Waylon just confirmed what you already told us”, she declared without further ado. “We need to leave, correct?”

“As fast as possible”, Saxon pointed out.

“Shit. We just moved here”, she grumbled, and eyed Adam. “You're Interpol, Waylon said. Do you have any way to protect us?”

“Not in the moment”, Adam admitted. “Since I'm not here officially. However, as soon as I take the evidence back, my boss will likely be lenient and put you under witness protection. Until then...” He glanced at Saxon, who cleared his throat. “Until then you will be secure with us. We got several safe houses all over the place. Name a location, and we'll take you there. No questions asked, no messy surprises.”

She eyed him and Alex doubtfully. “You are not Interpol, no?”

“We're your friends, that's all you should know”, Saxon pointed out. Mrs Park nodded. “Good. I'll tell the boys, and we'll pack our things. Waylon wanted to take a shower. You are welcome to one too, Mr Jensen”, she added with a side glance at his disheveled appearance.

“You are very kind, Mrs Park”

“Please, just call me Lisa”

“Adam then.”

* * *

Jensen inhaled the smoke deep, held his breath, and exhaled a cloud. He'd been waiting to have a smoke break since he stepped foot into the asylum. He was feeling better already, after that promised shower. Saxon, first name Ben, had been kind enough to lend him some of his own emergency clothes for the time it would take for the Parks to evacuate their house and Juggernaut to take them into a new place, since his own were hopelessly stained with blood and grime.

Adam volunteered to watch the front of the building while the family scrambled to get their belongings together. For that purpose, he was sitting on the front porch in an old wicker chair that looked like it had been part of this household since the eighties. He had his boots back now too, and his coat lay folded next to him. He would need to take it to the dry cleaners to get it mended, he figured.

There was a low hum at the back of his head, and his spine went ramrod straight. There was no flickering, no glitches- yet he could  _hear_ the swarm. But- just like back in the asylum- they have  _killed_ the host. They  _destroyed the engine_ \- how could the swarm still be there?!

“Hello Adam.”

He flinched badly and jerked around, blade extended from his wrist. The chair next to him had been empty- now it  _wasn't_ . Eliza eyed him with a mixture of curiosity and confusion. Adam blinked puzzled, slowly pulling his weapon back and setting his face into a frown. Was this just a hologram of Eliza, or was she screwing with his optical sensors? She certainly wore the appearance he'd seen her in last.

Her expression twitched. “I'm...sorry, Adam, for startling you.”

He exhaled slowly. “It's okay. I'm still a little on the edge though. You've seen what they've done in Mount Massive right? Is that why you are here?”

“It is part of the reason, yes”, Eliza was still sitting on that wicker chair like she was on air on Picus News. “I have seen the experiments, and the results. I gathered all data. I am not sure what to do with it, though.”

He frowned. “Waylon believes it would be best to release it all on the Darknet. But not immediately.”

Eliza cocked her head. “Do you want to wait until Murkoff believes you are gone?”

Adam shrugged. “Not sure yet. I know I need to get the material off my Blackbox first. And the Park family needs to be safe before we can start pissing at Murkoff's walls.”

She inclined her head. “I see. You need to secure your position first.”

He exhaled. “And get myself repaired.” With a grimace, he showed her his arm that was like a bleeding wound, with cables and insulation hanging loose. “Koller is going to throw a fit.”

Eliza pouted a little. “Does it hurt?”

“Does it-” He blinked, then shook his head. “It doesn't. It's not flesh, and the connections to my body are all okay so far. I'm a little sore, but other than a few warnings, I don't notice anything.”

She inclined her head. “May I...take a look?”

He furrowed his brows. With everybody else, he would be more cautious- but this was her. He didn't know whether he trusted her, but she had never shown any inclination to hurt him. So he tilted his head in answer, and she reached out for him.

Her fingers closed around his wrist.

_Her fingers closed around his wrist_ . 

She didn't phase through him, or disappeared- she was really  _there_ .

Eliza cocked her head, apparently focusing and not realizing how Adam just stopped breathing in surprise- and her hand fell apart into a black cloud that hovered around his wrist for a brief moment.

His eyes widened in realization.

It had been  _her_ . She had called him, told him she was going to help- and then the swarm appeared and took out the men that had tried to shoot him and Park.  _After_ he destroyed it.

“The Walrider”, Adam hissed. “Eliza- you are the Walrider?!”

She shook her head. “The Walrider was the swarm you destroyed in the asylum”, she pointed out. “It is more correct to say that I am using the Walrider's frame as platform for myself.”

“But- _how_?!”

“It is a swarm of nanites”, she explained simply.

“Tiny robots”

“Exactly. Wernicke and his partner Alan Turing created the first Walrider. More or less on accident. They couldn't even discern what it was, lacking the correct equipment.”

“So they really believed they summoned something?”

“In a way.” She shrugged. “Once they had been taken to Los Alamos during Project Paperclip, they soon realized that Turing actually created a precursor of a self-sufficient swarm of nanites. However, nobody ever managed to engineer a working version.”

“Until Murkoff stepped in.”

Eliza just waved him off. “It still is the old version”, she explained. “One they managed to manifest much easier than Wernicke did under the Nationalsozialist Regime. But at its most basic, it is still the same system. The swarm was incapable of maintaining itself. It was incapable of directing itself, or even act according to a programming. It was dependent on its host.” She seemed thoughtful. “As such, the swarm never was a sentient being like Wernicke assumed. It was just its host directing it subconsciously.”

“So you are its host now?”

“Your assumption is not entirely correct, but at its most basic, yes.” She let her body bristle briefly into a cloud-like form, before re-settling into the appearance he had gotten to know her in when he first met her face-to-face. “I changed the nanite's programming”, she explained with a little smile. “It was easy. I made them work.”

“Because as an AI yourself, you have it much easier to get into its code than any hacker could ever do.”

“Exactly. I made the swarm self-sustained. It was just a question of adding a few subroutines that made the re-purpose of inorganic materials possible without organic systems acting as frame.”

He furrowed his brows. “You know, you just put yourself into more danger, right?”

“I am aware”, she admitted. “The people like Bob Page, or Hugh Darrow, would not rest until they had the programming of the swarm in their hands now, as it is the first fully self-sustained and functional nanite construction. As such, they would hunt after me, should they become aware that I took over the swarm.”

Adam arched an eyebrow at her words. “They don't know, right?”

She smiled. “I am listening to their communication. They are not aware I am in control of the swarm.”

“So you can hide.”

“I can do much more than that”, Eliza pointed out. “My main programming is still hidden where they can't reach. But a copy is inside the swarm now. I can act much easier now.”

“...You have two bodies.”

“Not only two”, she exclaimed, and in retrospect, it made sense- if she could replicate the nanites, then she could also create as many as she wanted. “They won't be expecting it.”

Adam grinned. “I can guess so. What are you planning to do now that you can go wherever you wish to?”

She frowned. “I...do not know. I think I'd want to go to Montreal, to talk to her. She doesn't know better, but I do. I think she will listen to what I have to say.” She tilted her head. “I think I also want to go to Arizona. There is some old project of Murkoff that seems to be centered near an illegal settlement inside a Natural Reserve. Given what they have done here, I have to assume it is about human experimentation again.”

“You need my help, you just need to ask.” 

She smiled, “I will consider it”, and tilted her head. “What about you, Adam? What will you do now?”

“I'm going to contact Pritchard and ShadowChild, have them check Murkoff so they don't make information disappear, and ask them to keep the other Rippers under control until after the data we acquired has been released.” He shrugged. “Same with Samizdat.”

Eliza frowned. “Why wait?”

“Because if they release whatever we have discovered before the Whistleblower, they will be openly declared as being part of this. Hundreds of people could die. If the Whistleblower documents are the first, the public will assume that the hackers followed the trail. Takes the pressure off them, though puts it on the Park family instead. But they are four people, we can protect them much better than hundreds. I'll go and ask Miller for protection. He won't like it, but he owes me.”

Eliza frowned a little. “Are you certain that Interpol won't be corrupted by the same people that backed Murkoff?”

The Illuminati. Adam leaned back. “Interpol already is. However, it would be easier for them to just put the blame on Murkoff entirely and sacrifice them instead of trying to save things that can't be saved anymore. Plus, Saxon promised he'll keep an eye out himself too. If Interpol starts acting weird, Juggernaut will get the Parks out.” He glanced back at the house. “They'll be safe.” He paused, frowning. “Unless Picus creates a smearing campaign to hunt him down like Assange once was.”

Eliza hummed. “I believe that won't be possible. Not with the direct evidence you uncovered, and not with the evidence being sent to the Darknet almost immediately. It's an end they can't cut off.” They were silent for a moment until she turned to him. “Adam, I think I would like to go with you, too.”

His lips quirked up in amusement. “You really want me to run away with you, huh?”

“Yes. There is so much you can show me that I don't understand yet.”

He cocked his head. “How would you go about this? I doubt I can just introduce you as a friend.”

“You won't need to. I can hide a part of the swarm inside your augmentations. But I don't want to force you, Adam. You mean much to me.”

“And you to me”, he agreed. “You won't be forcing me, Eliza. Just...” He trailed off.

“You know I would never do anything to hurt you.” She inclined her head like a bird. “And I would be useful to you too. This new body of mine- I can get into places neither of us ever could. Curiosity is all that motivates me, Adam. I just want to see whether I can really be a person.”

“You already _are_ a person, Eliza. Doesn't matter whether you're flesh and bone, or zeroes and ones. The free will defines who you are, and I trust you that you would never misuse your abilities.” He had seen what she did when she took control of the swarm. She could have easily killed all these people there like Billy had done. She did not, only confused and subdued them without shedding any blood. Worst she did were bruises. Just like him. He held out his hand. “Let's see whether we won't be able to crack down on the Illuminati together.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to keep on using the Walrider, and with Eliza as 'host', it's way more efficient now, too. Oh. Hi Ben. Everybody, say hi to Mr. Icarus Effect/The Fall.
> 
> Miller: "Jensen. Why the Hell do you come back from vacation even more beat up than you were when we sent you home?!"  
> Adam: "You left me unsupervised, sir."  
> -Weeks later, when the Whistleblower Documents got out:  
> Miller: "JENSEN!"
> 
> \--
> 
> As always, thank you for reading.


End file.
